As Warped Tour pop-punk and American Apparel indie rock dominated the strange post-Y2K guitar-band milieu, Boston’s Karate delivered an engrossing shot of rock that constantly shifted between several shades of subterranean sounds. The quiet moments on Karate’s millennium busting fourth album carry much of that old,
unbridled intensity, braided into subdued jazz melodies and slowcore restraint.
Karate’s transition into rock maturity bore supple fruit with Unsolved, presented here with three previously unreleased songs.