Reviews

Bipolar Bear: Man Mountain

Semtex Magazine - 2006-05-05


Bipolar Bear is a Los Angeles quartet founded by ex-members of The Manifolds, Rose For Bohdan and various other outfits. The band's line-up is said to be hardly stable. And that instability seems to linger through Bipolar Bear's music as every song is an abrasive mix of diverse guitar lines, rhythm changes, enough feedback and a slightly slanting voice that reminds me of both The Red Light Sting and Ink & Dagger. A combination of these two bands would actually please me as a description of Bipolar Bear's total sound as well.

Man Mountain is an album of intelligent songs that sound like a blanket of orchestrated noise and chaos at first glance. Unexpected hooks, unconventional drumming, distorted bass lines, crazy guitar hooks and a very heartfelt voice screaming on top of it all, makes Bipolar Bear sound like a malchestrated yet-to-be-tamed noisy beast. It's only after a couple of spins that this record starts to get more digestible. Give it even some more listens and you'll catch yourself humming along. In the end it's surprising to discover this album is actually truly catchy. Spastic rhythms, guitar noise and catchiness… sounds contradictory? I don't know.

The best thing about Man Mountain is that its sound and shouts are totally passionate. Bipolar Bear managed to deliver a ten-song album that's relatively short (only 20 minutes), but that's really powerful and sincere. Parallels can be drawn with bands as Blood Brothers, The Red Light Sting, Ink & Dagger and Monorchid, yet Bipolar Bear manages to twist and turn itself so much that at least I am totally into this album.

SEMTEX RATING FOR THIS RELEASE
7.0 (out of 10)

VISITORS' RATING FOR THIS RELEASE
10.0 (1 vote)

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