On Repeat The Cemetery Improvement Society

The Cemetery Improvement Society's new album, Lonely Dog Island, goes cavernous and creepy for nine tracks when out of the industrial bleakness comes founder Marc Clagget's voice: "Where my papers at, dawg? Crunk pants crew!" So begins "Drunk Up The Jams," Claggett and Russell Paul's affectionate parody of Technotronic's "Pump Up The Jam." It's mostly funny, though, because of what comes before it. Up to this point on the CD (which the two will release at Friday's show at The Frequency), the duo crafts an itchy patchwork of beats and switched-around rhythms, rarely sticking to the repetitive thump you'd expect from industrial or electronic music. Even the craftily applied layers of synth, guitar, and weird samples just make the space feel more forbidding and stark. There's a certain playfulness to tracks like "Spaz," but consider "Pocket Full Of Bugs," built on isolated-sounding recordings of Aaron Miller, singer of local metal band Dissent And Revolt. It's one thing to hear Miller's voice set against DAR's relentless, borderline-grindcore assault, but quite another to hear it yelling over a slow-building electronic drone for nearly eight minutes.

"Ephrine" by The Cemetery Improvement Society

The CIS, which began with Claggett holding down sampler and guitar duties by himself, has also figured out more ways to rock on this record. Guitars swirl in from the distance on "Ephrine," meshing nicely with the many crashes and quiet passages Claggett tends to work into his beats. The duo's patience and resourcefulness make for nocturnal comforts on "Late Beat" (a couple tracks after the funny one), which cycles a few gentle hooks over a rhythmic approach that seems as versatile as it is bizarre. Better yet, Lonely Dog Island doesn't give up on the project's free-form, damn-near-improvised feel. In fact, the album clocks in at a challenging 80 minutes. It's okay that they've taken up so much space on this record because a lot of surprises lurk within.