Fourteen albums in and fifteen years deep, Rollerball, bring their outward bound song structures laced with dark jazz and noise funk back to the US via Portland label, North Pole Records. A living / breathing recording ethic, five European tours, constant West Coast presence, and underground cred that can’t be beat, Rollerball, is an established institution influencing what bands sound like in Portland, Oregon and throughout the world. Two Feathers is Rollerball’s first domestic release since 2005’s Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause. The past two albums, Rollerball and Ahura were available only on avant super label, Wallace Records based in Italy, a country that has long championed Rollerball. The rhythm section, Gilles on drums and Monte Trent Allen on bass, drop extended deep grooves and lock-step rhythm changes, anchoring Two Feathers‘ sound with wizened authority and practiced ability. Amidst layers of intriguing percussion, electronic murk, and the damp acoustic hollowness of Amanda Mason Wiles’ saxophone poetry, Mae Starr weaves intricate and inventive keyboard magic. Her fingers swallowed by rings that stream up and pounce down the keyboard, evoking powerful vocalists like PJ Harvey or June Tyson, and casting spells over a rapt audience. Hard to describe and impossible to pin down, Rollerball, has been praised throughout their storied career by The Wire, Pitchfork, Brainwashed, Blow Up, Fake Jazz, The Oregonian, Terrascope, Mercury, Stranger, etc., and played on radio stations around the world. They have released music on Roadcone, Cochon, Silber, Jalopy Grotto, Nillacat, Pacific Wonderland, and Felina y magia in the States and Bar la muerte, Wallace, and Hysm in Italy. Rollerball has been compared to Sun Ra, New Order, Cereberus Shoal, JOMF, Califone, and Can. Two Feathers is packaged as an LP with CD/DVD included or as a gatefold CD/DVD card wallet. The DVD includes music videos from the nineties and into the new millenium, as well as, The Three Brunos, a film by Starbage Hands featuring tour footage and performances by Rollerball, OVO, and Ronin in Italy and Slovenia in 2005. Long time saxophone collaborator, Jacopo Andreini (L’enfants Rouge, Squarcicatrici), performs throughout the DVD. The CD also features Scott Rosenberg (Pink Mountain) on saxophone. Reviews: This is an album...that starts at one place and ends up somewhere else entirely by the disc's end. There have been so many twenty-first century bands and/or artists whose music is heavily influenced by 1970s progressive rock. But in most cases the artists are merely rehashing old ideas. Perhaps that is what makes Rollerball such a refreshing change of pace. The folks in this band write and record what could best be described as progressive pop/rock...but instead of aping and/or copying bands from the past, they simply use the ideas as a diving board to create their own unique sound. Some of the tracks on Two Feathers are almost normal sounding...while others are wildly unpredictable and experimental. You'd never know from listening to this CD that these folks have been at it for about fifteen years now. In addition to the CD, this package also includes a DVD with music videos from the 1990s and beyond, a film by Starbage Hands, and performances by Rollerball, OVO, and Ronin in 2005. So many listeners want a band to be easily pigeonholed and categorized. The folks in Rolllerball defy categorization and, by doing so, are creating their own unique niche in the world of music. Housed in a beautiful cardboard foldout sleeve. Recommended. TOP PICK. -babysue.com