Album Review: Now You Are One Of Us by The Paper Chase

Dallas experimental noise band the Paper Chase are indie rock's best answer to the paranoid, violent ramblings of ICP or Wu-Tang Clan, and their fourth full-length album, Now You Are One of Us, presents more of the same disconcerting, cacophonous, yet strangely melodic and catchy music that always seems to find frontman John Congleton on the verge of going absolutely insane. The record is vaguely conceptual, the ideas of brutality, extraterrestrial beings, and death pervading the 15 tracks, whose titles explain what's happening on the record better than anything else could ("Wait Until I Get My Hands on You," "Delivered in a Firm Unyielding Way Lingering for Just a Bit Too Long to Communicate the Message 'I Own You'"). Congleton is fixated on the idea of possession and macabre sado-masochism.

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Now You Are One Of Us offers more of what made the Paper Chase’s last album such a perverse thrill – sliding, seasick guitars; an Albini-fied rhythm section; spectacularly detailed arrangements and production; and a similarly spectacular level of ambition. To these ears, this Texas-based group continues to be one of the most exciting acts in rock: its sound is simultaneously easily identifiable and flush with possibility. The Paper Chase is ultimately an angular indie-rock band, somewhat like the Jesus Lizard, only the Paper Chase’s guitars wobble and stumble instead of stomping along with the bass and drums.

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