Adai

Anyone amazed by the amount of racket the White Stripes can generate with just two members will be positively flattened by Adai's latest — an EP recorded and self-released in 2006 that's now getting national distribution. With assistance from producer Kurt Ballou (whose credits include work with Genghis Tron), guitarist/vocalist Devin Mendoza and drummer Justin Trujillo create a metallic mash of undeniable power. "The March" stomps across a figurative battlefield in a steady rain of grandiose riffs and cymbal splashes, while "A Mark of Ownership" and "Hawkins" explode with dynamic calculations that would do any math-rocker proud. Granted, Mendoza's occasional vocal growls don't qualify as distinctive, but this flaw is hardly fatal, since the two wreak such havoc instrumentally. They're noisemakers of a different stripe.