REVIEWS The Noise Marissa Warner Wu 1/2002 Miniwatt Assimilated CD - First of all, I have to say this: I don't know what Miniwatt is doing. The guitar is very trebly, the bass is very bassy, and the drums are just plain fucking awesome. But whatever the hell they're doing - it's working, guys. The whole sound comes off being somewhat punk-ish, yet slowed down to half speed and distorted the hell out of. (No, that's a good thing.) It's also sparser, more minimalist than regular punk. Music stripped down to the bare bones. At first, the whole album sounded the same. Same chords, same beats - yawn, yawn, I've heard this before. But they somehow manage to keep the whole thing interesting. The vocals get a little repetitive at times, but nothing on this album is completely static. Each song is like a living organism, sometimes catching you by surprise, sometimes almost familiar. Hats offto the drummer, whoever you are, the arrhythmic beats drive the whole piece (e.g. "Terrible Things"), giving it an almost surreal feel to the Album. Miniwatt is like experimental hardcore as played by robots from another planet. Very good, yet very strange at the same time. That's the only way I can even begin to describe this. Maximumrocknroll JY 10/2000 Miniwatt Rectifiers CD - Dissonant herky-jerk stuff from Rhode Island. Falls somewhere between the Ex and the Bastards (the US band, not the Euro one) with that early Gang of Four thing. Noisy, tweaked-sounding guitar parts, distorted bass, and one-note rant-vocals. Not unlike the Brittish band Dawson. Pretty kooky stuff with some very oblique but cool guitar parts and wird off-rhythms. Sorta hard to get into at first, but worth the effort. Highly recommended. The Noise K 9/2000 Miniwatt Rectifiers CD - Aside from the frustrated, claustrophobic feel I get when listening to this CD, I like it. I'm sure the feelings evoked are intentional, so I give Miniwatt credit for that. They play a stunted sounding kind of punk rock, that avoids screeching vocals and generic chord progressions. I wish it came with a lyrics sheet, there aren't a lot of repeated vocals parts, but there are a lot of words and they're hard to decipher. I want to know what makes this guy tick! The playing is inventive for the area they're exploring and I never get bored with the arrangements because they're all completely different from each other. Definitely an interesting little nugget. Not recommended for people who like to sing along with the chorus. Maximumrocknroll KM 7/2000 Miniwatt Metroplis 7" - Wow, this is going to be a tough one - I mean that in a good way, because I like challenges. All right,let's start with how they describe themselves: "Three-piece indie wave." Now here I go: They take full advantage of tweaked-out unconventional rhythyms but still usually hold your foot tapping, amazingly enough. The title song "Metropolis" is thinner sounding while the other three songshave the crunchy Big Black style distorted vocals and guitar. In fact if you are into Big Black, Rapeman, and friends, you will most certainly like this record, not just because of the similarity, but because Miniwatt does it with their own style that adds a bit more class.