[atsonicpark]

I loved this band back in the day, felt like a nice mix of Beefheart (Trout Mask-era; clanging guitars, arhythmic vocals, all the instruments pulling in different directions), Gang of Four (even referencing some of their song lyrics), with an Arab on Radar vibe at times (you know.. weird guitar interplay, wrong notes, but with a distinctly post-punk vibe, that some might call "dancey").

 

A very interesting band, as they started out and were lumped kinda with stuff like Le Shok/Neon King Kong (who I LOVE; "We Are Electroction" by Le Shok is one of my favorite albums ever), Kill Me Tomorrow, and .. eh, the Locust, early Blood Brothers, that kinda stuff. But this band was a lot more interesting, in my opinion. They were noisey but it was ALL clean; they had no distortion. It was LOUD as hell, but every note was audible... like a Shellac/Gang of Four/Theory of Ruin-type deal I guess... that first album, OTHER MATHEMATICS, is kinda a masterpiece. The second album was a lot more frenetic and all over the place, spazzy, with kinda like a Whirlwind Heat-era "Do Rabbits Wonder?" vibe; messy, incoherent, sometimes downright wrong... but somehow catchy, even when it should be annoying.

Those albums were really cool, especially the jarring, extremely-out-of-tune clanging clean guitars, but then 2 of the members left and Ex-Models released an album called Chrome Panthers, which was way different than the previous 2 but still awesome. This was more "noise rock"; they were inspired by Einsturzende Neubauten, and this influence shines through in the dirty, clanging, metallic edge (now with distortion!), very repetetive but beautiful songs. The album kinda was like (sorry for all the namedrops) Orthrelm's OV, built around tiny little repetitions and then sudden changes out of nowhere. Despite having 2 members, it was brilliant! Live, they had 3 drummers for this album.

Anyway, that was 5 years ago, and there really hasn't been any new releases or anything. I know some members went on to be in Seconds, Oneida, and so on, but yeah. I miss this great band. They eventually changed their name to knyfe Hyts.

I highly reccomend people search out those 3 records.

[nicfit]

Love Other Mathematics (Love Japanese Style ended up frequently in my "party compilations" ah ah), like Zoo Psychology, about Chrome Panthers, I remember it getting quite boring,but it's been a long time since I last gave it a spin though.
Nice band for sure.

[atsonicpark]

Wow, quick reply. I'm glad they're not forgotten!

They're a really addictive band, especailly OTHER MATHEMATICS. I just love how they did these miniature Gang of Four anthems, like one minute songs, distilling all the energy and creativity of Solid Gold-era GoF without the politics and without feeling the need to stretch it out. The one moment where they do stretch out -- the final song -- is the best song on the album; what a guitar line!

[SYRFox]

i LOVE this band. zoo psychology is a masterpiece in my books, i love chrome panthers too, super hypnotic stuff (and buy american is the only time my cat decided my music was too weird and came to smash the speaker ahahah); still need to check out their first one ! such a great band. i hope they'll release something new one day...

[TheFoxBen]

I like them, Zoo Psychology is fucking insane.

[loubarret]

Great band. No idea where they are these days

[PAULYBEE2656]

ex models are pretty good. all 3 records are worth spinning once in a while.