God, I am so predictable. Hand me a CD that sounds even vaguely like Wire or a Steve Albini project and I’m sure to like it. Viza-Noir fits the bill perfectly, and also boasts incredibly cool cardboard packaging -- although I actually don’t like alternative packaging because you can’t fit it comfortably into those Case Logic folders. But that’s hardly the point.

Funnily enough, certain songs on this album (particularly "Lit Up") reminded me a bit of Other Mathematics, the Ex-Models album I reviewed on these hallowed pages a few months back. But while the Ex-Models were cheeky and frenetic and very "New York", Viza-Noir is more angular, spare, more "Chicago". Which isn’t to say they’re cold fish; the fifth track, "Safari", is positively steaming.

It sometimes feels as if the trio is holding back. Mike O’Connell’s vocals often sound as if they're on the brink of degenerative chaos, but the instruments are almost too precise and controlled. One of the best and most satisfying things about math-rock is when it all just falls apart for a moment -- what I like to refer to as "the swarm", which ultimately dissipates and scatters. Viza-Noir never does that; they create tension, but they don’t build up to outright anxiety, and thus, we never feel any relief.

While my impulse is to group Viza-Noir in with some of the better math- or space-rock bands, and while I think they can comfortably inhabit a similar niche, there are significant differences between Viza-Noir and, say, Turing Machine or Shellac. I immediately noticed Viza-Noir's emphasis on the vocal lines and the coherence of their melodies. Most math-rock bands really seem to be trying to fracture or explode melodies from the inside out, turning guitars into rhythm instruments and limiting the use of lyrics. But Viza-Noir seems to do almost the opposite, so that the band follows the singer and the guitars play a melody-making, rather than melody-destroying, role in the mix. So maybe it’s just arithmetic rock (please forgive me for the bad joke).