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As we witness the continued decline of the recorded music object and the concomitant decline of the greedy music-industry shopkeepers who have made their careers ripping off artists and the public by peddling music to us in mass-manufactured form, it’s interesting to see how the artists themselves are adapting to the new musical landscape. A band like the Octopus Project, Austin’s premier “indietronic” band, might at one time have hoped to eventually “land” a major-label contract, in the hopes that the big tall building bastards in New York or L.A. could help them to “move some product.” These days, what artist in their right mind would even want to get signed to a major? What would be the point? Stick with a local indie label and just do the rest yourself, for God’s sake.
And, indeed, the punk DIY ethos has been all over Austin’s local heroes since their inception. Famously, the band appeared at Coachella ‘06 only because a fan nominated them for a MySpace contest without their knowledge. Their growing national profile was built on digital word of mouth, with their tunes and accolades proliferating among blogs and FaceBook sites like small town gossip. Such web-o-sphere chatter helped transform their 2005 release, One Ten Hundred Thousand Million, from a local Austin confection into a major musical event, and that album’s anthemically rhythmic “Music Is Happiness” from a techno-pop curio into a widely distributed 21st Century musical staple.
The Octopus Project’s latest recording, Hello, Avalanche, is exactly the kind of refreshing, effervescent, and complex musical venture that the band has been building to for some time now. For the uninitiated, the band specializes in vocal-less slices of instrumental energy, combining synth, drums, guitar, computer and theramin into an instantly memorable (and often danceable) musical stew. They recently collaborated with the like-minded Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania experimenters Black Moth Super Rainbow on The House of Apples and Eyeballs, and that record now seems like a transitional marker between Million and Avalanche.
Here, the band dials back some of their more avant-garde tendencies and produces an album of dance tracks and lullabies, propulsive grooves and contemplative soundscapes. After the soothing overture of “Snow Tip Cap Mountain,” the record explodes in upbeat, grinning celebration with the remarkable construction, “Truck.” Possibly the most exciting track the band has ever created, “Truck,” with its combination of repetitive keyboard grooves, crashing guitar chords and overpowering drumming, smashes into the listener like a gold-plated brick. From there, the record rises and falls like a series of mood pieces.
“Bees Bein’ Strugglin,” a delicate balance of Yvonne Lambert’s synthesizer wooshes, Toto Miranda’s insistent drum grooves, and Josh Lambert and Ryan Figg’s resonant guitar and bass, sounds for all the world like an updated New Order track, while the drum-machine pop and keyboard refrain of “Mmaj” brings their cacophony back to familiar techno-dance territory. Elsewhere, the urgency and warmth of “Loud Murmuring” and the hypnotic Theremin wail of “I Saw the Bright Shinies” plumb uncanny emotional depths, and show what an all-instrumental band can communicate with music alone.
Well, mostly music alone. Buried almost apologetically at the record’s conclusion, “Queen” showcases harmony vocals amidst the clamor, as the band tucks us into bed and kisses us goodnight with a hushed, music-box finale. Yet whereas many instrumental bands that finally draw vocals into the mix (most recently Do Make Say Think), with “Queen,” the lyrical content serves as merely another musical texture, almost nonsensical in the evocation of their fantastical soundscape. Still, with this small detour into singalong territory, Hello, Avalanche may be The Octopus Project’s most varied and ambitious release, a bright, shiny gift to their expanding legion of acolytes. You can imagine it now: one ten thousand million bloggers, buzzing with praise for the band’s latest dose of frothy blare. Join the party.
Mp3 from Hello Avalanche:
I Saw the Bright Shinies
Websites:
www.theoctopusproject.com
Myspace
