There are two kinds of bands in the world: those who just wanna have fun and make you shake yer li'l ass, and those who spend their time in more intellectual pursuits. Brooklyn's Tungsten74 are firmly in the latter camp, as their previous two releases should make obvious... but it turns out that they were just warming up. With Aleatory Element, they set a pretty high threshold of tolerance for the esoteric. For one thing, it's a double album... and each disc will take up nearly an hour of your time. And then there's the group's sound itself: this is the kind of music that would result if the back-of-the-classroom stoners and D & D-playing science nerds could ever get past their differences and start a band. Think metallic prog-rock generously peppered with samples, various instrumental solos and effects-engendered noise, and you'll get the general idea.

Tungsten74 recorded Aleatory Element in Amarillo, Texas, over a six-day period midway through their seven-week tour. Judging purely from this disc, I'd say the tour wasn't going too well; it's easy to imagine it as a means of purging the frustration brought on by empty clubs and shitty sound systems.

So, yeah, the album is a little self-indulgent. It'd be hard not to apply that term to a two-hour record consisting mostly of lovely but ramblingly repetitive performance pieces (it's not even strictly accurate to call them "songs"). And it's hard to divine just what lets Tungsten74 get away with six-minute percussion solos and avoid being another mind-numbing "experimental" jam band.

Gentleness is a lot of it; repetitive music is annoying when you can't get it out of your head, but Aleatory Element makes fairly unobtrusive background music. Sure, it has its rocking numbers: "Trojan Cracker" kicks off the first disc with a vocal sample, then bursts into an aggressively churning guitar riff. This can only be sustained for so long, though. Tungsten74 explore many facets of psychedelia, but seem especially enamored of its expansive, atmospheric side -- meaning that they aren't afraid of a few delay pedals. The drummer's intense tribal rhythms keep things from drifting completely off into the ether, while occasional groovy-ass backbones are provided by the bass. And if you do choose to pay attention while the record's on, you'll be rewarded with some very cool sounds put together in some very interesting ways. Guitar, bass, drums and synth are represented, of course, but herein, banjo, rain stick and various other sonic toys make tasteful appearances as well.

The word aleatory means "dependent on chance, luck or an uncertain outcome". From its live-recorded improvised-ness to the range of reactions people will have to it based on their musical taste and level of intoxication, Aleatory Element seems aptly named.