ashlee: ashes 2 ash

Like a dream you don't want to admit, F.A.G. Diarrhea Cult's "Ashes 2 Ash" is gut-wrenching, punchy, and frighteningly vague -- a dark, minimal collage of canned sound, bleak, unaccommodating lyrics and almost-there grooves. Meet Ashlee, your mother, your sister, the girl next door. Among gym-whistles, clipped chimes and noisemakers, she sings of an agitated encounter with a dog. In lazy autotune she tells you why you ought to sober up. She thinks you're her brother. For all the EP's DIY irreverence, there is complexity and richness in turn -- of vocal phrasing, of rhythm, of language.