Tuesday 15 March 2011

Aulos
EP IC
Out Now
Rating: 4/5

When you write predominantly about progressive rock, you're bound to use the word 'challenging' a lot, and by God I do. Nevertheless, I feel that my adding to its ubiquity within the journalistic canon on the genre has never done me a disservice... until now.

I hope then you'll believe me when I say that this is a challenging listen. It's wholly instrumental, peppered with Gameboy samples and 8-bit warbles, synth sweeps and filter bass all overlaid with schitzophrenic guitar lines. Sometimes jaggy, sometimes triplet-ty (in a kind of U2 singles kind of way), and sometimes downright heavy, there's always just enough melody to keep the whole package hanging together. 

That said, despite its potential to ensnare the much-cooler-than-I mathrock crowd with its odd timings and rhythms, it's basically the sort of release that will only appeal to you if the promise of 'exactly what it says on the tin' gets your blood up. What's on the tin, I hear you ask? 

"Come on a 30 minute journey of shimmering guitars, ground-shaking bass and thunderous drums fused with circuit bent madness, synths, gameboys, lapsteels, cellos and electronics!" 

Fucking hell, sounds brilliant, right? Well, I think it's as just as crazy, random, bold and genius as that suggests. I hope you will too. 
 

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