Jersey’s DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN have always had god-like musical abilities. But their latest, a collaboration with the always-eccentric Mike Patton, sees their songwriting craft elevated into a realm most simpletons cannot comprehend. Irony is a Dead Scene is so compelling that all other music entities should simply quit. Although just a trite four songs, this EP carries the weight (and awe) of a destructive lighting storm in the Arizona desert. Each track (save the brilliant APHEX TWIN cover) is chock-full of DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN’s over-the-top, technical hardcore mathematics and littered with Mike Patton-isms (quirky voice gymastics and melodic hooks that are heavy on rhythmic patterns). But the bottom line here is that Mike Patton’s presence simply extracts a dynamic element that the band would otherwise never realize. Who else could dream up out-of-nowhere parts like the spastic chorus in “Pig Latin” where a little voice injects “chinga” between “your mother, your father, your brother, and the thing under the covers”? DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN’s previous releases were all tremendous musical endeavors, but they were seriously lacking in the composition and vocal department (perhaps that’s just the nature of the bands of their ilk). The only other artists that could possibly capture this compelling level of musical spontenaity would be Mike Patton’s other musical offspring, MR. BUNGLE and FANTÔMAS, and the post-AT THE DRIVE-IN avant-psychedelic explosion, THE MARS VOLTA. (Epitaph)