at a glance...

Hometown: Chapel Hill, NC
Year Formed: circa 1994

Members:
Fred Erskine-bass,trumpet, wood & steel pole
Sean Meadows-guitar, vocals, bells & staircase
Jeff Mueller-guitar, vocals, moog
Doug Scharin-drums, percussion, moog, samples

Bands In The Family:
Rodan, Retsin, Sonora Pine, Codeine, Come, Hoover

A marked departure from 1996's fitful Tropics and Meridians. The disjunct, off-kilter song structures gleaned from forerunners Rodan and Slint reemerge here, but they're employed with a balance the band's often lacked. With Four Great Points, June of 44 have proven themselves to be one of the most adaptable bands to have come out of Louisville's tired underground music scene.

The album begins with the meditative "Of Information and Belief," a King Crimson-informed opus that cracks under the pressure of the band's spasmodic organizational tendencies at all the right moments. Guest musician Julie Liu wends some beautifully sinuous violin through Mueller's whispered vocals on a few of the songs, but Doug Scharin's heavy drumming is the most powerful presence on the album; his steady, hip-hop-infused beats provide the swirling, ethereal layers of bells and chimes with a firm sense of grounding.

These ethereal elements lend a sense of expansive emptiness to songs like "Dexterity of Luck," whose repetitive, detuned notes conjure up an Hebraic prayer meeting. Though the splashy finger cymbals and bells of "Doomsday" seem more akin to traditional Berber music than to anything based on Louisville's prog-rock precepts, they're a logical addition to the band's previous style.

If you like June of 44, check out:
Polvo
Slint
Paul Newman Machine Is Not Dead
Rodan