Infant Mortality Rate -- Puer Æternis -- May Day Recordings

Released
1998

Label
May Day Records

Reviewed by
Matt Simpson

Last Edit/Update
12 October, 1999

Infant Mortality Rate

Puer Æternis

Track Listing

1. Twee 1.25
2. Straining at the Stool
3. Daddy
4. Norwegian Wood
5. The More You Struggle, the Tighter It Gets
6. Might As Well Wish For It
8. Carmen Mirauder
9. Dogmas of the Quiet Past
10. My Rat's Food
11. Watch Nine Correct
12. Dutch Wife
13. Twee 0.40
14. That's Not My Handwriting
15. Hot Damn Viet Nam
16. Odo

This is weird. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The opening track made me look twice at my CD player - it consists of a sound that exactly replicates a CD skipping. So, not knowing what to expect, but having an idea of dark ambience, the skipping really made me look. Thankfully it was intentional. Now, this sets the stage for the rest of the CD. Such an opener that grabs attention is wise, as the rest of the tracks follow a varied structure and mood. The attempt here was to create dark ambience, drones, and haunting lulls. As said before, the mood changes with each track. Any stand outs? Not really, sometimes there are abrupt changes, and other times it flows. The tracks definitely demand attention, however, as this sort of experimentation (heh, nowadays anyone can release crappy music & call it experimental, but hey that's another rant...) isn't your typical background music. All in all a nice release.