It's almost without fail that I get hooked on anything coming out of the French heavy underground lately. I almost passed on this one though, due to the

goofy album cover which depicts a gaggle of little girls dressed in, you guessed it, bumblebee costumes. But you know, I gave it a shot just 'cuz it was

French, and whaddya know but Cissetive turned out to be a fantastic album of post-rocky, Temporary Residence-influenced post-hardcore.

Sure, Envy are the masters of this style in Japan, no question about it, but this is a sound that's the French have been continuing to explore for a couple

of years now, and they're really perfected that combination of heavy, explosive hardcore and fragile, brooding instrumental rock. Gantz and Amanda Woodward

are two of the better known bands doing this stuff, but Bumblebees' are equally great, mixing together mighty Neurosis/Isis crunch, harmonica-laced spacey

folk-pop, epic riff instrumentals a la Pelican / Red Sparowes / Tides, jazzy, sax-driven ambient rock, a crooning singer delivering his lyrics in French,

Codeine-esque slow core, and lurching math-rock. Bumblebees take all of those elements and keep Cissetive a cohesive, well-written album - man, this

band would/should be huge, I can't believe it took me this long to find out about 'em. The album closes with the sprawling 19 minute epic

�Stolnjak�, which shifts between delicate post-rock strum and tangles of crushing metallic heaviness; the track is actually cut in half by about seven

minutes of silence, but when the end of the track kicks in, whoa...it suddenly becomes a moody, insanely catchy shoegaze jam, kinda like a heavier

MBV, or Ride, or Swervedriver, you get the picture, the song is that good. Can't recommend this disc enough, which sucks 'cuz we actually only have a couple

of copies in stock, and we're not sure if we're going to be able to get this back in stock or not.