June Of 44 - Four Great Points (Album Review)

 

June Of 44 - Four Great Points

(1998)

My copy: 2013 reissue by Quarterstick Records.

June Of 44 were a supergroup of sorts, featuring members of notable post-hardcore bands like Rodan, Hoover and Lungfish; it only makes sense then that June Of 44 would continue pushing the boundaries beyond what most of their prior bands had released. Four Great Points had been June Of 44’s third full length outing, and features a wide array of instrumentation and odd percussion. 

Emo comparisons are drawn in the dreary lo-fi vignette “Of Information & Belief” which features a regal violin performance but reassures legacy fans that the band can still get heavy when the breakdown appears near the end of the track. Echoes of Drive Like Jehu’s iconic Yank Crime can be heard on the particularly whiny guitar licks although June Of 44 are clearly crafting something more cerebral than openly emotional. 

“The Dexterity Of Luck” is pure genius: a simple expression of dissonant repetition that is transformed multiple times by a massively dynamic rhythm section. The bass tickles at your sides first before breaking out into several different melodic movements including polyrhythmic arpeggiations and even a solo. The drums are capable of changing on a dime, and keep listeners guessing before kicking back in with heavy cymbals. “Cut Your Face” is an angular return to the roots of post-hardcore channeled through the heavier ideas of Rodan or Shipping News. 

“Doomsday” is an instrumental experiment with harmonic ambiance, smoky guitar and sputtering bass; the lo-fi mixing becomes an asset here and the band utilize EQ tricks to keep things interesting. Violin returns on “Does Your Heart Beat Slower” which again takes from Jehu but with touches of lo-fi emo. “Lifted Bells” is another instrumental, this time made far more colorful and exciting by meshes of synthesized noises and strange percussive clattering. Neat mixing and EQ techniques are used to give “Lifted Bells” a specific atmosphere; which is that of possessed Christmas toys. 

“Shadow Pugilist” has the happiest riff and is an almost romantic waltz of sorts. “Air #17” has the most interesting ambiance on the record with sampled typewriter noises and slightly distorted spoken word passages that paint images of a fast-approaching apocalypse. “Air #17” switches back and forth from mysterious math-rock inspired riffing and slower, ghostly meandering before ending abruptly. The biggest issues across Four Great Points are that some ideas are repeated for too long, as if in an attempt to pad some songs out. Burned down to core ideas, a few songs here are truly exceptional with others being solid. 

Four Great Points may not totally reinvent the wheel of post-hardcore, and the admittedly small tinges of emo do distract from an otherwise more engaging tone, but the album is thought-provoking from a compositional standpoint with some genius moments. 

This reissue is still available and original pressings aren’t even that difficult to get.