On Little Known Frequencies

iTunes Review

San Francisco/New York’s From Monument to Masses are keeping post-rock alive and kicking with their wonderfully thought-provoking cacophony. Mostly peppered with socio-politically based spoken word samples, some of the tunes here also boast changes so heady and labyrinthine that they could induce seizures on those trying to follow the mathematics of the song structures. “Checksum” opens with upward spiraling guitar crescendos wrapping around a base that rocks like early Trans Am recordings. “(Millions Of) Individual Factories” successfully experiments with dub-inspired groves in the mid-section breakdown before segueing into cinematic sounding parts somewhat reminiscent of David Axelrod’s tenure at Capitol Records in the ‘60s. “The First Five” pulses with some keyboards that approximate the kinds of computer noises heard in the 1983 movie WarGames. There’s a good chance that fans of Explosions In The Sky or Battles will gravitate toward “A Sixth Trumpet” for its similarly atmospheric sonance and for the incredible way that F.M.T.M. can make angular songs somehow sound flowing.