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Reportedly recorded in the span of 36 sleepless hours, the prevailing vibe ofthe Catheters’ latest offering capably echoes the chaos and claustrophobiaof the marathon recording session. Vocalist Brian Standeford shouts himselfso hoarse you want to pass him a throat lozenge and producer John Goodmansonhas preserved the impromptu spirit of the session by keeping the mix grittyand dank. Static Delusions and Stone-Still Days more or less traces thepath of a bell curve: it unfolds fast and furious, dips dramatically into moresprawling, mid-tempo territory and scrambles back uphill to higher, louder ground.

As with the group’s self-titled 1999 release, the Catheters’ Sub Popdebut is firmly rooted in the DIY punk ethos: the record features virtuallyno studio overdubs and the Seattle quartet stakes its claim by being as loudand as fast as the rest of its peers. Still, the Catheters—who sound morethan a bit like Mudhoney—would be wise to take note of their spiritualforefathers’ decade-long struggle to transition from simple white noiseto nuanced scrawl.

The best moments on Static Delusions and Stone-Still Days come when theCatheters catch you entirely by surprise, as exemplified by the elliptical funkof “Endless Avenues” and their spaced-out, nocturnal approach on “BlearyHaze.” The same goes for the quiet-yet-heavy “Clock on the Wall,”perhaps the one song on the record where the group takes the time to fully unpackall of the blissful components of its sound. If only the Catheters could findthe nerve to peel away the thick smokescreen of noise a little more often—itmight cut a clearer path to everything else that’s inside.