Cinema Cinema Pack Spectacularly Freeing Weirdness Into Their New ‘Art Punk’

The new album CCXMD from the Brooklyn-area “art punk” group cinema cinema packs personalized glorious weirdness into sprawling, completely unpredictable songs. Out in full on November 1 via Nefarious Industries, the mostly entirely instrumental songs are feats of finding beauty and even “fun” among the ruins of an utter wreck, and who couldn’t use a boost like that?

Quite simply, this music veers wildly all over the place. The band even include wind instrumentation like an apparent flute right alongside some of the more traditional implements, and structurally, the group let their imagination guide them, well apart from genre constraints. For example, on the track “Cyclops,” cinema cinema employ erratic free jazz right alongside steadily building and even catchy rock guitar/bass melody, and the experience proves simultaneously jarring and freeing.

The band’s latest songs fit together somewhat like a slightly (or very) intoxicated marching band — and it’s spectacular. They’re performing with the energy of a straightforward punk rock band and the confidence of the boldest experimental musicians, and these elements unite with a flourish. With their energy, they truly find a poignant “sweet spot” in the midst of the noise.

The band quickly prove richly dynamic, wheeling out intensely brooding atmosphere as smoothly as they deliver blasts of musical chaos. The way in which this group dials into fierce, even irresistible melodicism even while exploring the outer reaches of chaos makes their music super memorable. CCXMD tells a “story” of venturing out into the outer reaches of sound and the more directly “real-world” elements it expresses and not just finding but furiously grasping onto a core of empowering individuality.

The complete and total freedom from genre constraints (and much else) delivers a real invigorating feeling to those lucky enough to have a chance with this music, and the lyric-less open-endedness means that whatever specific oddities that life has found for you, the music will be there too. CCXMD isn’t just “protest” music defined by how it’s against the status quo; it’s a bold proclamation of a new realm of musical (and personal!) possibility.

5/5 Stars