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Reviews

Free Moral Agents, ‘Control This’ (Chocolate Industries)

Isaiah “Ikey” Owens earned his punk-prog cred playing keyboards and synths for the Mars Volta, but the Long Beach auteur noodles with a crisper sense of purpose on his other band’s second full-length. While vocalist Mendee Ichikawa waxes esoteric on the power of love in a husky drawl reminiscent of Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, Owens and crew gussy up sturdy melodic motifs with crunchy rock dynamics and space-funk filigree. The result plays like a well-edited retelling of a visceral vision quest, with the indulgent, had-to-be-there parts of the trip snipped off.