Tell the Divers

Tell the Divers are an instrumental outfit whose artistic home is Burnt Oak Records, a tiny label based out of Guelph, ON that record, process and package records on their own. A Knife Is Always a Good Plan B is the Divers’ first release for the label and it’s a boisterous, exuberant debut, blending math rock and art punk to form a collection of songs that highlight the group’s considerable musical talents and sense of adventure. Helped along by their proficient rhythm section, the Divers successfully navigate changes in time signatures and layered riffs to create spastic, disorienting soundscapes. This isn’t just aimless Don Cabellero-aping noodling though, as the quartet play with tension and release — building, and rising before suddenly detonating in a carefully contained cacophony. The Divers — whether by choice or necessity — take a warts-and-all approach to the recording, which suits their ragged energy to a tee. For a group very much in their infancy, this is a worthy first effort.