Every time they plug in, MINOT delivers unnervingly intense instrumental rock designed to flip the dance-switch in the listener’s brain with a platinum sledgehammer. MINOT’s style is deceptively complex: livid post-punk energy roils beneath a surface of cooly understated psychedelic instrumental composition. Their music is immediately familiar, yet they’re a singularity in the world of post-rock. MINOT (pronounced “MY-not”) has very little to do with those ubiquitous reverb-soaked crescendo-rock bands; they don’t borrow those sounds, nor do they dwell in melancholy themes.
Guitarist/midi-programmer Matthew Solberg, formerly of From Monument To Masses (Dim Mak Records), began writing the music that would become MINOT shortly before FMTM broke up in 2010. He and drummer Shannon Corr had played together for years in the San Francisco Bay Area noise rock band TURKS as a rhythm section and it was that dynamic which largely defined the way they would proceed in 2011 with MINOT. Solberg’s guitar playing shunted into Corr’s drumming the way a bass guitar would, which allowed bassist Ben Thorne to explore a more unconventional space. Thorne had played for years in Low Red Land (Thinker Thought Records) and years later MINOT would be fortunate enough to share his skills with San Francisco’s Tartufi (Southern UK), a band with whom he still plays. His basslines throttle uncannily through roots and melodies alike. Corr’s drumming burns tirelessly and almost mechanically, invoking memories of Jerry Fuchs. Solberg has left most of his pretty melodic arpeggios behind, opting for jagged, biting riffs that shudder with strange effects and hummingbird-quick strumming.
MINOT move through their paces like veterans. From playing crazily energetic shows all over the West Coast in service of last year’s debut EP and 7″, to producing their new LP with Robert Cheek at Red Room in Seattle, they are making every move count. The Mylene Sheath (Caspian, Pelican, Junius, Aeges) will release the band’s first full-length LP on July 1.