Dub and DIY punk are gaining in momentum, a natural progression of the fuzzed out pop that’s been inundating the indie airwaves. The new album, Bell Ord Forrest, by Kansas City dub-noise duo I Love You fits this classification. With an angst-generating array of synth melodies and tripped-out production, the album opens with an undeniable pinnacle, “The Colloquialism Is Simply ‘Gas’”. As the song dives into the repetitive closing synth and bass lines, one is treated to a drone of greatness.

As the album continues with “This Is The Best Birthday Ever”, it becomes clear that I Love You is a duo that knows and lives fun. There’s a chaos in the music they make, an unquestionable avant noise; but it’s backed by a consistency and an organization that assembles a makeshift order like the Fibonacci sequence in nature. This is a band that builds upon structure, as heard in the final two tracks, “Pillow Talk” and “Sorry I Drank Your Soda”, and they’re not about taking that order and fucking it up a bit. It’s a quality every single great experimental noise band possesses, and it’s one that I Love You has mastered.

From two brief instrumental forays (“Freelance Pedestrian” and “Graceland Is Better Without Elvis”) to an epic drug-referencing 8-minute noise-jam (“Making Snow Angels In Angel Dust”), there’s an inevitable conclusion here. I’ve heard several great albums from the Joyful Noise family over the past two years, and Bell Ord Forrest is the unequivocal favorite.

I Love You: The Colloquialism Is Simply “Gas” [mp3]

Joyful Noise Recordings [CD, 2009]

1. The Colloquialism Is Simply “Gas”
2. This Is The Best Birthday Ever
3. Freelance Pedestrian
4. Cliff Drive Nights
5. Making Snow Angels In Angel Dust
6. Graceland Is Better Without Elvis
7. Pillow Talk
8. Sorry I Drank Your Soda