Pitchfork

Most musicians would probably tell you that going unnoticed is the death knell. Then again, others not only go unnoticed, but they tend to shoot for it. Richard "Aphex Twin" James is perhaps the foremost purveyor: a soundscapist so tuned-in that when he does make a song that demands your attention, it's horrific enough that you need him to fade out fast just to keep from freaking out.

There are no freakout moments on Schrasj's F, a mix of low-toned guitars, ambient vocals and various MC303 knob twiddlings. In fact, nary a moment on the band's sophomore effort demands your attention. But that doesn't mean you won't catch yourself listening, anyway.

The steely samples and warped rhythm that introduce "Connect" couldn't be sonically further from the elegant guitar repetition they lead into, yet the odd coupling works as well together as an antique end table with a postmodern lamp on top of it. A similar build seamlessly takes "Old Fred Levy" from a dub- inflected spillage of drum loops to a mumbling guitar.

For all the bit parts that accentuate F and bring it close to the cinematic ambience created by Tortoise, Schrasj is a guitar band at its core. Indie chords hold up Terri Loewenthal's melancholic vocals and make "The Birge" sound like it's coming straight from the Unrest and Velocity Girl school of bubblegum heartbreak. And both "Five Parts" and "Weathered as the Wood it Tends" are bolstered by guitar patterns that are as responsible for the dull mood as the vocals.

In the album's liner notes, Schrasj printed the motto "We don't go straight, we go forward." It may be true, but after listening to F, a more fitting motto would be, "We don't go unnoticed, we go unassumed."