The second CD from
Kites aka Chris Forgues is one of the better noise efforts of recent years, thanks to Forgues' interest in fractured psychedelia of many sorts. It gives an anchor to his compositions, as readily reflected throughout the half-hour-long
Peace Trials. Lengthy opening track "Flag Torn Apart" helps set the scene, where scraggly static is soon joined by a powerful, moody feedback tone mantra, providing a soothing contrast to the rest of the song (which perhaps unsurprisingly soon delves into distorted scream-singing). The conclusion of the album, the title track itself, features singing from Erin Rosenthal of
Urdog in a duet with Forgues that touches on the style of acid folk -- spare string-instrument plucking, a slightly antiqued feeling -- while not quite sounding like a decades-old effort. In between the two tracks Forgues touches on everything from further skeletal vocal/guitar murkiness (as on the second half of "Something About America," down to the notable tape hiss) and near synth pop in a
Fad Gadget/
Normal sense ("Dirt") to frenetic effects overload. Perhaps because that latter approach has become so familiar more with time, it means songs like "Exploded Face" have less of the shock value they might once have possessed, but hearing how Forgues plays around with the arrangements -- for all the chaos, he's clearly aiming to assemble and produce the tracks just so -- makes up for it. Hearing the huge amounts of echo he creates with the massive metallic clattering on "Downward/Creepy Crawl" produces an almost meditative feeling, which not even its completely over-the-top conclusion totally destroys.