From Monument to Masses emerged as the best post-rock band while nobody was looking -- or, at least, brought a much-needed breath of fresh air to the style, which had become crowded by Explosions in the Sky impersonators during the 2000s. Most of those bands reveled in the quiet/loud shifts and were too immersed in their own sentimentality to see they were doing the same thing as the next guy, and were not too catchy at that. Meanwhile, FMTM, with their leftist stance, brought a sense of urgency to the music, which was consistently dynamic without resorting to ripping off Krautrock, and also benefited from great guitar hooks and attention-snapping anti-capitalist rants sampled throughout. Their 2009 effort is fueled by the same drive, and follows the same template, but though it's also a genuine and enjoyable affair, it fails to live up to their 2002 masterpiece, The Impossible Leap in One Hundred Simple Steps. Everything is in the right place, but the level of inspiration simply does not match the one they displayed before, making the music less gripping -- closer to the regular post-rock 101 level. This does not mean On Little Known Frequencies is a bad record, though -- FMTM may lose to themselves, but they remain among the best in the style, simply because they remember that good music must amount to more than two or three simplistic musical phrases sustained over unreasonable periods of time. They don't always pull it off on this album, but when they do, as on the centerpiece, An Ounce of Prevention, FMTM manage to tie together guitar textures, piano lines, and those revolution-touting samples to make the music involving without being convoluted, emotional without being sappy, and powerful while avoiding being blunt. Talk about good -- if inconsistent -- songwriting. ~ Alexey Eremenko, Rovi

1		Checksum
2		(Millions of) Individual Factories
3		Beyond God & Elvis
4		A Sixth Trumpet
5		An Ounce of Prevention
6		The First Five
7		Let Them Know It's Christmastime
8		Hammer & Nails