And so I Watch You from Afar - Self Titled
These days when someone says
"instrumental rock band" the first things that are likely to come to
mind are either some form of atmospheric post-rock/shoegaze or a possibly Hella or Don Caballero inspired math-rock
band. I'm not saying that encompasses all of the instrumental rock currently
being made but its at least a healthy percentage of it, and with a name like
And So I Watch You from Afar I would have put my bets on
"post-rock band that values reverb and delay more than they do their drummer".
I would have been quite wrong though as ASIWYFA are a rare commodity indeed, an
instrumental rock band that either has their own genre or skims the lines of so
many others simultaneously that they make you think that they do. Either way,
from what I can tell from listening to their 2011 self-titled full-length,
ASIWYFA fit right at home with the rest of the Sargent House lineup in the
sense that they glean attributes from math rock, prog, post-rock, and sometimes
just quirky indie-rock. These Belfast, Ireland fellows are no stranger to their
effects pedals and they don't like to stick to song structures or sounds that
are too predictable. One moment they're hopping from triumphant rock (opener
Set Guitars to Kill) and another they're channeling noisy almost post-metal
aggression (Clench Fists, Grit Teeth...Go!). This is indeed something different
but I'll have to give it a while to truly grow on me I think, so far I haven't
heard anything from this album that I don't like, but I've still yet to hear
anything thats truly blown me away. ASIWYFA gets:
7 out of 10
El Paso band Zechs Marquise have
gradually worked their way from out of The Mars Volta's shadow and are coming
into their own on their third full-length Getting Paid. Although it is kind of
easy to see how they got their in the first place. Drummer Marcel
Rodriguez-Lopez is not only The Mars Volta's additional percussionist, but he
and Zechs Marquise bassist Marfred Rodriguez-Lopez are also Omar
Rodriguez-Lopez's younger brothers. Put this together with the band's
psychedelic leanings and the fact that they are one of the few bands that TMV
have ever let open for them and you can start to see how they would have a hard
time finding their identity. Getting Paid is a bit of a departure from the
band's former psych/jam voyages, its still full of deep grooves and fiery
guitar work but in the context of more electronics, sequencing, and danceable
beats, giving the album more of an urban feel. One of the great things about Getting
Paid is that it never stays in the same territory too long, and the array of
sounds coaxed out of each instrument seem nearly endless. "Static
Lovers" feels a bit more like the Zechs Marquise you may already know, but
tracks like "Lock Jaw Night Vision" explore new territory (there are plenty more that do, trust me).
Some favorite moments of mine are the awesome synth solos in the title track,
the uneasy sax that crawls into "The Heat, The Drought, The Thirst and the
Insanity" and pretty much all of "Crushin' It!". I'm not sure
what the album title Getting Paid is meant to represent, but after taking this
trip I wouldn't be surprised if it was validate that this album is the
soundtrack to the "just-swallowed-your-stash" low-budget crime movie that only plays in
your head when you listen to it. Getting Paid is basically just a great album
full of adventurous sounds:
8 out of 10
Boris have been alot of things throughout
their career but "pop" has never really been one of them. They've
done drone, doom metal, punk, stoner rock, and some ambient trippy stuff so I
don't see why they wouldn't continue to explore genres and I guess they don't
see why either. Still, when you're known for being one of Japan's heaviest
exports "pop" is not exactly a word that your fans are going to
embrace (although I'm sure Boris haven't gotten as much crap as Baroness did
for it), fortunately Boris are weird enough to somehow pull this off and still
be accepted. Boris released two other albums in 2011, the aptly titled Heavy Rocks,
which is a bit more like the Boris that many know, and the straight up J-pop of
Attention Please, which most fans probably though was just a random off shoot
album that the band would use to get the poppy stuff out of their system. Well
it turns out they were just preparing us for New Album, a record that sort of
combines the two approaches. This is really just what I would consider J-pop,
futuristic synths, polished vocals and all. The thing is that its still catchy
and addictive, I can't normally say I'm a big J-pop guy but this album has been
my guilty pleasure good-time soundtrack as of late. Without a doubt, energetic
opener "Flare" will probably bring to mind images of mechs battling
through space, but "Party Boy" has a dancier and less urgent feel.
Yes there are still some electric guitars and Boris-isms to be found, one of
the album's stronger tracks "Luna" is even oddly heavy with what I
would almost describe as an electronic blast beat behind futuristic,
reverbed-out vocals and beautiful, ambient synth chords. "Spoon" is the sublimely feel-good
soundtrack to a high speed race through a futuristic neo-Tokyo (is that a
thing?) although "Pardon?" is a surprisingly somber track compared to
the rest of the album. There's plenty more to talk about here but I think you
get where I'm going with this. Boris makes good music and this album is no
exception, but with that being said this one will not be for everyone. For
instance if you're the kind of person who usually only prefers, say, the Boris that showed up for their collaboration album
with Sunno)))). I'm enjoying it though, so I give New Record:
8 out of 10
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