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Hello, Avalanche
Rating: 6.4 | 0 User Reviews | Send to Friend
By Rick Sieber
Austin-based instrumentalists (and MySpace darlings) the Octopus Project craft a jaunty, danceable electro pop with indie rock touches -- a digital-analog hybrid that for all its structural predictability offers up plenty of musical surprises. Though their clipped melodies rarely transcend the general din of their appealingly eclectic arrangements, there are still hooks aplenty; most often this means two or four measures of an arpeggiated keyboard riff, repeated (with slight variations) ad infinitum while the rhythm section (the band’s real strength) adds a tightly percolating drive and physicality to their otherwise light and brittle sound. As appealing as this basic approach can be, it’s the exceptions to this template that register as the band’s most compelling moments: the shoegaze-meets-new wave moxy of “Ghost Moves,” or the bubbly-yet-booming waltz of “Upmann,” for instance. Best of all are their trippy theramin excursions (“Snow Tip Cap Mountain,” “I Saw the Bright Shinies”), where expansive melodies extend beyond a few measures at a time, adding a strangely unsettling (yet hugely appealing) warmth to their usual electro pop creations. Album closer “Queen” even goes so far as to add vocals, a final humanizing touch that suggests that three albums in, the Octopus Project are only just beginning to explore the wide array of musical options at their disposal. (Peek-a-Boo Records)
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