There are few underground scenes in North America, and truly the whole world, as vibrant and diverse as Southern California’s is, and this summer, one of its many underrated gems – Dizzy Box Nine – is back with a collection of melodic tracks you’ll definitely want to hear. In Faster Than Anticipation, Dizzy Box Nine get back to the fundamentals of rock n’ roll whilst blazing forward with alternative concepts many of their peers would be too intimidated by to experiment with. From where I sit, this all adds up to producing one of the best records out of the California underground this season.
You can’t beat the tandem guitar-drum attack in “Phone Bill,” “Deep Inside Your Mind,” “Little By Little” and the rollicking “Sometimes I Feel Like This,” and though it’s a touch assaultive in spots, it never feels over the top in style. There’s a lot to be said about the forcefulness of the melodies throughout Faster Than Anticipation, as they’re the binding tie between Dizzy Box Nine and the OG west coast punk rock of Black Flag, but I like the way the band balanced this adrenaline with a lot of pop simplicity where it arguably counts the most.
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I really like the colorful style of the harmonies in “OK, OK,” “For You,” “Let’s Go Skating,” “Deep Inside Your Mind” and “If This Is Real,” and to some extent I think they add to the contrast in the big picture here beautifully. Dizzy Box Nine are really good at throwing conflicting aesthetics together while retaining an overall sense of evenhandedness in their play, and though they’re not changing the narrative surrounding their sound in Faster Than Anticipation per-say, they’re definitely departing from the almost neo-ska style grooves of Pop Fantasy without question.
This master mix is as sleek and tightly arranged as the music itself is, and that’s something I just haven’t been able to say about a lot of the commercially-backed content that’s been coming across my desk in the last few months. You can tell that the band had a critical role in the development of every aspect of this LP, because from the substance of the melodies to the cadence of the drums and the vocal’s bright poetry, there’s never an instance in which Dizzy Box Nine sound disconnected from the medium – nor each other. They’ve got something special here, and you don’t have to be a professional critic to pick up on it.
APPLE MUSIC: https://music.apple.com/us/album/faster-than-anticipation/1515192698?ign-gact=3&ls=1
Pop/rock buffs of all ages and backgrounds definitely shouldn’t miss out on what Dizzy Box Nine are serving up to the world in the all-new LP Faster Than Anticipation. July has traditionally been an exceptional month for new pop music, and although this is hardly a conventional year for the industry, indie acts like this one are undisputedly keeping things interesting with releases like Faster Than Anticipation. Conceptual within reason and yet foretelling of what could be a leaner and meaner era for the band, this record is an awesome listen any way you look at it.
by Eric Jarvis, approved and posted by Troy Johnston