Q And Not U have mixed elements of disco grooves and punk rock howls for six years. Still their new album Power has all the hyperactive schizophrenia of a long and misguided drug binge. Hidden among the genre-swapping, foot-stomping and flute-blowing, is a band with a tremendous sense of timing and balance. Power is under 40 minutes long, but no song sticks around long enough for you to remember the melody thirty seconds later.
At their best when at their most frantic, the band’s slower songs like “District Night Prayer” and “Dine” are good, but uninteresting. Their bread and butter can be found on songs like “Wet Work,” where a driving synthesizer turns a straight ahead rock song into a club track. Within the bleakness running throughout the album’s lyrics, most of the music makes you want to get up and shake it. If you’re paying attention during “Wet Work,” you’ll hear vocalist Harris Klahr sing, “Something beautiful gets shot down everyday.”
It’s tempting to try to capture Q And Not U and pin them down to a genre, but it’s not an easy task. Power is a dynamic and aggressive album that’ll have you both scratching your head and shaking your ass.