In the Simpsons episode "A Milhouse Divided", Marge and Homer renew their vows. Homer's self-written vows include a series of "sickness and in health" dualities, one of which is "in quiet solitude or blasting across the alkali flats in a jet-powered, monkey-navigated…" Rev. Lovejoy doesn't finish the sentence, but you get the picture. And if you've ever wondered what it would feel like to blast across the alkali flats in a jet-powered, monkey-navigated something-or-other, Maserati VII gives you the chance to find out, if you play it at sufficient volume.
Maserati have always been a band that mostly left the "post" out of "post-rock." Their sense of dynamics and compositional flow is right in line with Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, and any number of other tension-and-release junkies, but the music never broods. Instead, it powers sleekly along on economical drumming, taut, delay-heavy riffs, and chugging bass, a little like Trans Am with more focus. The economical drumming is especially key, and Mike Albanese handles the kit well after taking over for the late Jerry Fuchs, who played with the band from 2005 to his death in 2009. At the very least, he was well-briefed on what makes this band's music so effective-- their rhythmic template seems to be a head-on crash between the tightly disciplined, unerring work of Kraftwerk's sequencers and drum machines and the looser, more human, but no less disciplined motorik beat of Neu!.
The album's extended transcendent peak comes on right in the middle, with the 10-minute-plus blast that is "Abracadabracab". The Genesis reference in the title is intentional-- the beat plays off a similar sequenced rhythm to the ones Genesis used on Abacab-- and the song lives up to its own billing as modern-day prog rock with a groove. As it breaks down and builds back up, the band is always careful to keep pushing a forward motion. "Solar Exodus" is more explicitly electronic, layering Vocoder over buzzy electric sequencing, and a stomping funk beat. The band gets unusually heavy on "Earth-Like", but for the most part, their spiraling guitars help keep breakneck burners like "The Eliminator" light on their feet.
VII pursues no radical new directions for Maserati, but even though you sort of already know these songs, they still have enough engaging motion and kinetic force that if you ever loved them in the first place, you'll love them all over again here. The moment "San Angeles" kicks in with and adrenalized surge of guitar and thudding club beat, it's easy to feel as though you're along for this whole ride. VII is pretty much the sonic equivalent of being in the passenger seat with Bullitt. It's fast and it's rough, and if you hold on, you'll probably enjoy it.
