An object lesson in expansive thinking translated into jagged propulsion. Any 41-minute record with 33 songs on it will naturally get your brain going ?Jam econo. Pedro. Serious as a heart attack...? But there?s no slavish or idle idol worship here, not even for our collective aggro-spaz heroes. No, what the Mae Shi do is [SECRET!], it?s throwing mason jars at your hoary preconceptions just to watch both shatter; it?s taking the spirit of bands like the Minutemen, Big Boys, DNA, and Boredoms (and OK, some of the fall-down-the-stairs clatter of the latter too) and running down the truth for ears new and old. They do it with nimble funk humor (?Takoma the Dolphin is AWOL?), obscurantism (the various songs called ?Revelation?), and queasy pop (?Jubilee?). I know there are a number of bands from the Troubleman universe that are slaying with sharp treble noise, and the Mae Shi occasionally call such recent like minds to mind (the drum sound is sometimes akin to that of early Unwound records, to my ear). But again, it?s not the antecedents that matter as much (though they come to mind a lot) as the (dare I say) subtle beauty of Terrorbird?s final six songs: one called ?Jubilation,? the last 5 all ?Repetition.? They careen from glitchy drones to lurching, stabbing knockdowns, and they are emblematic of what this band seems to be about: fearless exploration, intense volume, agile brains tensely gripping guitars, book-toting assailants with hopeful smiles, shoving. 8/10 -- Sal Addays (11 June, 2005)