by Ken Taylor
The Bay Area's Blectum From Blechdom represents a strange breed of electronic noodlers from the late '90s. Fed up with soulless techno and increasingly dry mainstream electronica, the Blectums and their peers (Kid 606, Cex, Hrvatski) have gone to great lengths to re-energize electronic music and give it a punky kick in the pants. The Messy Jesse Fiesta is the first release from Blectum From Blechdom, and it's a pointed and progressive step in the right direction. First, the tracks are not recorded simply to be mixed and faded into and out of DJ sets, but rather to be listened to as an entire musical experience. And at 25 tracks in length, you can bet the experience is an adventurous one. Throughout the record, the Blectums combine noisy techno beats with plundered samples, guitar riffs, and swirly synthesizers to create an extremely upbeat and fun album. Where they are most creative is in their willingness to avoid the typical IDM-isms that plague so many of their contemporaries' records, like heavily disjointed beat structures and water-thin production. Their approach is well-rounded and beat-driven, but they pepper the record as needed, never overworking the motifs of their nihilistic manifesto to desecrate soulless electronic music. And, as a testament to the Blectums' musical range, the appearance of indie rock gods Jad Fair (of Half Japanese) and Kramer (of Bongwater) on a couple of the tracks makes the record that much more intriguing.