Do not click off this review, you will miss one of the most surprising and stunning albums of the year from a completely unknown band.The first release from the longtime hardcore webzine, and by god it?s a fucking scorcher. I initially saw Lye By Mistake at a local show in St. Louis and I was truly stunned such an amazing act was right here in Missouri under my nose. But this goes far beyond local fanboy-ism, as Arrangements For Fulfilling Fulminating Vective is one of the most creative, challenging and downright brilliant albums that truly fulfills the void left by The Dillinger Escape Plan’s descent into the mainstream.

Though certainly fitting the giant categorical umbrella of ‘math metal’ or ‘spazzcore’, due to tangible influences that range from DEP to Daughters to The Number 12 Looks Like You, but Lye By Mistake are far far more. While bands like Into the Moat are apt to throw in free form jazz injections, Lye By Mistake, in part due to Josh Bauman’s pure Jazz/classical background, transform their songs from sprawling chaotic spasms of angular free form metal to supine, finger snapping jazzy, bluesy spats that are far more than just random spurts. Throw in vexing key use from portly, oft modulated screamer Tony Saputo and the end result is something I can only term as ‘rubikscubeloungecore’.

The songs are of course, hard to follow and absorb with casual listens and most will be put off by the expectedly quirky song titles, but once the caustic, staggering DEP-isms are unraveled and thus sheathed with the bands taught jazz-spazz tangents, the songs flow with mind bending but plausible complexity.

After the spastic throes and screams of short but brain shredding opener ‘Silence, the Girl’, Lye By Mistake unfurl their far more adventurous side with ‘If We Were Intense, This Song Would Be a Boyscout’ and Bauman’s stellar climax. About a minute into ‘Aboriginal Negatives’ takes time out from the dizzying intricacy to show that Lye By Mistake are not just about caustic spasms of noise as they deliver a sumptuous display of Progressive laced noise. The albums first expanded track (i.e over 2 minutes), ‘Ostrich Feathers and Apple Pie’ delivers a redneck ho-down, campfire twang and a amazingly epic, oriental, virtuoso slowdown amid the distorted vox and finger shredding artistry. ‘900 Seconds in Search of Jerry’ gives us big band and salsa before exploding into the expected angular schizophrenia. Seriously folks at their most manic, Lye By Mistake are implausibly but brilliantly unlistenable but at the same time dazzlingly talented and hypnotic. It?s the kind of noise that initially makes you go ‘WHAT THE FUCK?????’, but they break in these just amazing off kilter segments of sheer genius. Just listen to ‘John Nash and The Flipper’.

As if in complete contrast to the albums short bursts of noise, closer ‘Nero’s Intention’ clocks in at a mammoth 9 minutes, showing that Lye By Mistake can keep up their gregarious musicianship for more than three minutes with flurries of flamenco, 50’s beach rock, The Shadows and yet more expansive free form jazz. A special mention should be made of 20 year old drummer Drew Button, who if Lye By Mistake don’t succumbs to the US band disease of breaking up way to early, should be on his way to elite drummer status. The mixing mastering duo of Eric Rachael and Allan Douches is capable, but a little underwhelming.

This record will ultimately only appeal to those that can see past the contrived lyrical nonsensical prose and fans of ‘hated’ bands like The Number 12 Looks Like You, but those willing to look past scenester division will find, as I did, a mind bending album of awe inspiring, free form proportions.

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