Medications

Completely Removed

Dischord

Completely Removed

The short-lived math-rock trio Faraquet- guitarist Devin Ocampo, bassist Jeff Boswell, and drummer Chad Molter- probably has one of the best influence-to-work-product ratios in indie rock. Though the band was only together for four years, and their entire recorded output fits on one CD, their one full-length album, 2000's The View From This Tower, was and remains a flashpoint for fans of intelligent indie rock. In part, this was due to the patronage of one of the world's biggest independent bands: Faraquet was booked as Fugazi's opener for a short tour in 1999, and Tower came out on Ian Mackaye's label Dischord. But just as importantly, the record's complicated-yet-catchy, loud-yet-approachable sound, augmented with horns, strings, and overdubs, served as a crucial pivot point between the hardcore-derived indie bands of the 90s and the cerebral and experimental math-rock artists of the new millennium.

Faraquet dissolved unceremoniously in 2001, but the band got a second act of sorts mid-decade, when Molter and Ocampo formed Medications. The first Medications LP, 2005's Your Favorite People All In One Place, was more focused than Tower, but less forward-thinking, and the band didn't seem to catch on the way Faraquet had.

By rights, Completely Removed ought to correct that. More than anything Ocampo and Molter have done before, this album is a fully realized, cohesive work that captures the creative spark and joy that excited the Fugazi audiences lucky enough to catch Faraquet back in 1999. Completely Removed is built on the same foundation of Ocampo's arpeggio-heavy guitar work and Molter's nimble, jazz-influenced drumming as Tower, but the pair's songwriting chops have strengthened massively. The adventurous and, at times, self-indulgent patchworks that marked the earlier band have been polished into punchy, economical songs with progressions that are ingenious and sometimes odd but completely organic.

This much is simply the realization of the pair's potential; the surprising part is their vocals. Recording over a period of months in Ocampo's home studio allowed for painstaking layering of multiple vocal lines, with deftly executed performances, despite neither man possessing more than an average indie-rocker's voice. One glorious result is "Seasons," a performance split between the two, and a contender with Surfer Blood's "Swim" as the year's most infuriatingly catchy indie rock track. Another is "Long Day," on which Ocampo croons like an R&B singer, as if in a challenge to the Dirty Projectors: where the latter's fusion of soul and art-rock is audacious and strange, the Medications' is humble and passionate, and all the better for it.