Thought Industry

With a completely different backing band in place, it probably made sense for Brent Oberlin to modify his band's name with the addition of "the" to Thought Industry - not that the new line-up or the four-year break between albums has affected the music considerably. Following in the stylistic footsteps of Outer Space is Just a Martini Away and Black Umbrella, Oberlin leads his crew though 17 tracks and 71 minutes of disparate new wave prog rock that, with its art-school inspired lyrics, song structures and jagged, angular rhythms is equal parts Pere Ubu and Emerson, Lake and Palmer - technically impressive without being pretentious. Let's hope it won't be another four years between albums.