Cy Dune: No Recognize

As if Seth Olinsky wasn’t experimenting enough as a member of the unpredictable outfit Akron/Family, his new solo turn as Cy Dune is yet another tangent in his artistic vision. The skronky fuzz-rock here seems basic enough, but in just 15 minutes, the No Recognize EP plays with some pretty tricky textures.

There’s the rippling tumble-down hooks of “Where the Wild Things Are”, the chunkiest bit of music here, which really sounds totally different from Lou Reed-esque speak singing of “We Want More”, which also blends in some Middle Eastern-style lead riffs into the grinding fray. The title track may be the most impressive thing here, building to its fuzzy side slowly, steadily, giving us Olinsky’s clear voice as the lead instrument and not all that noise. Because while this is a curious new environment for Olinsky’s fascinating guitar stylings, it also veers a bit too much into oddities that don’t fit on, say, the stop-start noise-pop of “Yellin'” or “Resentment”, which feels like a slower, more sludgy version of what “We Want More” does better. This is a great new avenue for Olinsky, and even if it occasionally stumbles, it whets the appetite to hear more from Cy Dune, to build on the best of this EP’s eccentricities.