Album: RTX

Transmaniacon, DRAG CITY

Even by the profligate standards of the record industry, the million-dollar-plus payoff that Virgin handed Royal Trux when they were dumped from the label is one of the more unfathomable expenses of recent years. They're now back at indie label Drag City, with a new, abbreviated name and a new line-up based around sole remaining founder Jennifer Herrema, but with no more discernible mainstream potential than before. Indeed, on Transmaniacon, they go to considerable trouble to render everything, especially Herrema's piercing vocal sneer, as indecipherable as possible - either through the swathes of phasing that swirl around the brusque riffing of "Heavy Gator", the extreme vocoderisation that leaves most of "PB+J" unintelligible, or the constipated treatment that makes "Stoked" sound as if it's been fed through a tight-necked sonic funnel. A cynic might suggest that they're hiding behind a veil of avant-rock posturing, as the few glimpses of their music in relatively untreated form reveal an uni

Even by the profligate standards of the record industry, the million-dollar-plus payoff that Virgin handed Royal Trux when they were dumped from the label is one of the more unfathomable expenses of recent years. They're now back at indie label Drag City, with a new, abbreviated name and a new line-up based around sole remaining founder Jennifer Herrema, but with no more discernible mainstream potential than before. Indeed, on Transmaniacon, they go to considerable trouble to render everything, especially Herrema's piercing vocal sneer, as indecipherable as possible - either through the swathes of phasing that swirl around the brusque riffing of "Heavy Gator", the extreme vocoderisation that leaves most of "PB+J" unintelligible, or the constipated treatment that makes "Stoked" sound as if it's been fed through a tight-necked sonic funnel. A cynic might suggest that they're hiding behind a veil of avant-rock posturing, as the few glimpses of their music in relatively untreated form reveal an unimaginative brand of bad heavy rock.Still, it's always nice to hear someone dragging quotes from The Pipkins' "Gimme Dat Ding" through a hedge backwards, as Herrema does here on "Limozine".