Known for interplaying guitars (one of them aluminum, as was the bass) that were alternately crisp and clanging, searing feedback and controlled fury, Tar didn't manifest the brash hostility of most of their label mates; one can argue they were a little slept-on as a result. (Perhaps figuring this out, the band moved to Touch and Go for its last couple of releases.) Guitarists John Mohr and Mark Zablocki's riffs lock up and fall apart cyclically, yanking grooves out of absolutely nowhere on songs like "Dark Mark" and "Goethe." Jackson feels like the first fully conscious Tar album; it was also the band's final full-length for AmRep.