You know the {\rap} concept albums get -- foot-thick mildewed tomes marked "pretentious" falling from the sky and crushing out your stereo. {$John Vanderslice}'s last two albums deftly avoided that stigma, despite the rich conceptual scope of {^Life and Death of an American Fourtracker} and {^Cellar Door}, and 2005's {^Pixel Revolt} is no different. {$Vanderslice} has an incredibly light touch with his characters. His lyrics set the scene, but rarely is anything fully resolved or revealed. So there are keywords and phrases -- "mujahidin barricades," "I know you don't mean that dear," "peer round corners with dental mirrors," "Shawnee brave" -- and suggestions as to what's happening, but {^Pixel Revolt} is always at a four-way stop. It can go anywhere. Musically it incorporates guitars, manipulated tape, timpani, cello, and all manner of keys -- whatever the songs require, and in keeping with {$Vanderslice}'s unfailing curiosity as both a producer and sonic technician. (For {^Revolt} he worked again with engineer/multi-instrumentalist {$Scott Solter}, and also collaborated lyrically with {$John Darnielle}.) {$Erik Friedlander}'s cello traces the melancholy, recollective quality of {&"Letter to the East Coast,"} while the star-obsession meditation {&"Peacocks in the Video Rain"} is more upbeat with its chattering percussion and {\Baroque pop} chorus. {&"Continuation"} has to do with cops and killers and cracking the case; appropriately, it has the feel of a procedural crime drama's urgent and gritty theme song. {#Law & Order: Tiny Telephone}. Other highlights include the gentle piano of {&"Farewell Transmission,"} {&"Exodus Damage,"} and its cosmic {\country} lilt, and closer {&"crc7171, Affectionately,"} which with its B3, hissing loops, and insistent percussion might harbor {^Pixel Revolt}'s finest arrangement. It definitely has its most cryptic title. ~ Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide