Pitchfork

Vocalist Nirmala Basnayake may be the face of Controller.Controller, but the band's palpitating heart is drummer Jeff Scheven. His beats are so sturdy you could tie just about anything to them and it'd sound okay. His basic stock in trade is the epitome of "dance-punk," with plenty of hi hat on the upstroke, kick drum on all fours, and crackling snare fills. The rest of the band picks up more on the dance and less on the punk half of his approach-- bassist Ronnie Morris has clearly listened to some disco, and guitarists Scott Kaija and Colwyn Llewellyn-Thomas alternately lock in with the rhythm section and ride it.

The band's debut EP, 2004's History, was a tight package of urgent rhythm and catchy melody. A full-length gives the band a chance to develop, but unfortunately the format also gives them more room to stray from their core sound, highlighting that they're not as good at slower songs as they are at break-neck floor stormers. "Rooms" in particular feels ponderous, weighed down by heavy riffing and a lack of buoyancy, and the little electronic interlude that follows isn't really doing them any favors either.

God, that sounds awful, doesn't it? As much as I hate to rain on a band's attempts to diversify its sound, though, my ears and the various parts of me that like to dance say the discofied barnstormer "Magnetic Strip" and throbbing opener "Tigers Not Daughters" are where it is for Controller.Controller. Basnayake's clipped, deadpan alto loves to hug a groove, and she's at her melodic best on "Heavy as a Heart", where she syncopates her vocal across the groove, dueling with some blister-fingered lead guitar. Toward the end of the song, a few of her male band members join in for some surprisingly Fleetwood Mac-ish harmonies, and it works really well. "Poison/Safe" is the best cut on the record with its tense, airless verses, barbed wire guitars and stunning groove, the bass line holding steady as the guitars change chords around it.

Controller.Controller's first album is an overall solid effort, and at its best it's capable of inducing a nervous twitch in even the most sedentary listener's legs. There are no individual songs as bracingly vital as "History" and "Sleep Over It" from on the EP (though "the Raw No" recycles part of the former's melody at about thirty fewer beats per minute), but those are an admittedly high benchmark. X-Amounts doesn't fully deliver on the History EP's promise, but it should be enough to keep the Toronto band on the map.