from the homegrown country licks of "Wild Packs of Family Dogs" to the otherworldly strings of "The Cold Part" on their new album. What is lost in warm immediacy is gained in eclectic cool: On "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes," the band fractures its funky beat into abstract percussive art. Singer-guitarist Isaac Brock still sounds as earthy as dirt behind his veil of vocal effects when he observes, "The world is my ashtray/Our hearts pump dust/And our hair's all gray." With
The Moon and Antarctica -- a place where "the universe is shaped exactly like the Earth" ("3rd Planet") -- Modest Mouse show they can find microscopic humanity even within the most expansive spaces. (RS 844/845)
NEVA CHONIN