It's been a while since we've heard from Tera Melos. Four years to be exact. And, oh my, are they back with a vengeance. Trash Generator, the trio's third full length, is an astonishing blast of confidence and rejuvenation. It sounds as if the downtime has recharged the band with an entirely new sense of purpose. The performances are brilliant and sharp, the songs concise yet intricately detailed, and the album production deftly captures the band's strength as a live unit. Their dalliances with mellower psychedelic phrases on their previous two albums, X'ed Out (2013) and Patagonian Rats (2010) are significantly trimmed and instead utilized as colorations within a swirling maelstrom of righteous aggro punk-jazz abandon. As such, it sounds like Tera Melos has fully metabolized their pop tendencies and found a way they can coexist with the band's iconoclast origins. Tera Melos - guitarist/vocalist Nick Reinhart, bassist Nathan Latona and drummer John Clardy - have learned to stop worrying and just be Tera Melos. The trio decamped to San Diego in late 2016 to record at Singing Serpent Studios with Ben Moore (Hot Snakes, Pinback). It was their first time recording in a continuous block of time, rather than the piecemeal stealth late night sessions at friends' studios of previous efforts. It gave the band a razor-sharp focus atop of their beholden-to-none attitude which lead to the direct, in-your-face energy of Trash Generator
