If you read many music reviews (say, 30 a week), you've probably been lured by mountains of praise to buy a number of Thrill Jockey artists, from 8 Bold Souls to the ever-talked-about Tortoise. Words like "innovative" and "essential" are to Thrill Jockey reviews as buttons are to shirts. Well, there are shirts with crappy buttons, and there are innovative bands that essentially bore. Tortoise, when you want the Ramones, are not going to do it for you.

While John McEntire of Tortoise engineered Chicago Underground Duo's Synesthesia, I swear this is not a normal Thrill Jockey release. There are no sections -- not even in the lengthy "Blue Sparks From Her..." -- where the music is appreciated more for its craftsmanship or intellectual rigor than for the emotions the music evokes. There are emotions swirling through pieces like "Red Gradations" that would make any artist, from Sonny Rollins to Dot Allison, jealous.

When you purchase Synesthesia (and you should), may I suggest eliminating every thought or possible distraction before you play it? When you do this, you'll be able to see that these songs (and their sounds alone) are the reason your senses have become whipped into a frenzy of stimulation. In "Blue Sparks From Her...", the first track, your ears will bear witness to Chad Taylor making drums sound less like drums than something literally thumping within you. There will also be Rob Mazurek shaping the cornet into a voice, used to express all that your mind wants to hear. Bumping against all of this divine jazz instrumentation are waves of near-Stereolabby electronics and found sounds, always applied deftly by Rob to accentuate the emotions within the watery, yet unsinkable pieces.

While a taste for inspired improvisation from Rob and Chad will undoubtedly prevent these songs from being preserved in a live setting, consider it a blessing from the God of Song that these pieces have been captured in their present form. They are what great adventures should always sound like.