While not as jazzy as its predecessors, Dilatazione certainly descends from the Tortoise school of thought. The freeform approach of the great Chicago school of the 90s, that being the dub, electronic, and improvisational connections, has morphed into a indie-rock escalade that undoubtedly is just as "90s" as anything else. The strongest advocate of the Tortoise sound in the new millennium, other than Tortoise themselves, has been The Mercury Program, who love their jazz and have a rich dual vibraphone presence. Dilatazione's sound is thus torn between these two worlds, which immediately draws comparisons to We Vs Death and Pawa Up First, although all concern themselves with different motivating forces.
Too Emotional For Maths is not an emotional album, at least not what you'd expect from something that makes such a strong statement. Perhaps the comment here is that Math(s) is not capable of being emotional, with the the numbers, shapes, and various other emotionless objects. Either way, Dilatazione is as cool as Miles Davis after finding out that he just got punk'd, which is surprisingly cool.
The Album starts off well enough. "Wendy Carlos" is one of the stronger tracks on the album. It begins with a wave of reverb, slowly transitioning into a full band mode, as guitar and drum beats move into accompany the rough front. Half way through the track the reverb cuts off, opening the sky for raw instrumentation and inviting the electronics to join the arrangement in the background. "Solo in una Strada Affollata" continues the movement of the previous track and wastes no time developing it's forward momentum. This track bounces between jazz and indie rock, attempting to unite the two in a swift conclusion. The brass enters the picture at this point, which meshes the separate parts into a whole. "Cendre In" takes a similar approach, this time incorporating vocals into the fold.
At this point Dilatazione begin to run into some problems. While the rest of the album does offer some variations on this indie-rock/jazz theme, by and large, very little new material is presented and the band's inability to branch out when it counts is detrimental to the overall experience. Worse still, towards the end of the album Dilatazione becomes aware of this flaw, and the quick remedy is to become louder and more aggressive with "Ivano Menchetti" and "Tutto si Dimentica." The idea was novel, but this places the latter half of the album close to the "quiet/loud" group of instrumental indie rockers, and the quartet's clear decision to avoid this realm during the first half of the cd is ineffectively compromised.
Too Emotional for Maths is a bit of a mixed album. It does show much promise from the band, as individual songs are very noteworthy, but taken as a whole the cd leaves something to be desired. They would do well to take a tip or two from The Samuel Jackson Five, who have infused this jazz/indie-rock backbone with the emotional component of the post-rock world. It's not exactly clear that this is what Dilatazione has in mind, but the effort sure does hint at it.
-Lee Whitefield