Style: Fusion, Math Rock (instrumental)
Review by: Mike
Country: Australia
Release date: November 06, 2020
Some albums are greater than the sum of their parts. I’m not typically a huge fan of jazz or math rock; they’re just not my thing. But the debut album from Australia’s Arcing Wires is both and is actually greater than the sum of their genres.
Less than one minute into the single “Catacaustic” you can tell this band has something special brewing. The track fades in with a saxophone repeating a legato line drenched in reverb. The band enters with these massive hits before everything falls away and the meter changes with a simple but infectious riff. The saxophone then re-enters with a melody that is faintly doubled with vocals, the only ones on the album. A funky midsection adds some synths to the mix before the whole track turns dark. The track closes with some nasty off-time riffs and jabbing sax accents.
While there are a few other “heavy” moments scattered throughout the album, that isn’t Prime’s bread and butter. Smooth jazz sax and intriguing riffs over shifting rhythms is the main attraction here. The principles of jazz are still present as well: long improvised solos, spacious and tranquil passages that swing, and complex syncopated rhythmic changes. Ultimately if you have no patience for jazz as a genre then you’ll be disappointed with Prime’s whole vibe.
But if you are open to the jazzier bits, then you’re in for a treat. “Arc9” melds post-rock’s grand textures and ambience with the sleek lines of melodic saxophone. “Serotonin” introduces electronic elements over some truly progressive rhythms. Opener “The Lizard” has the album’s nastiest riffs and along with “Catacaustic” make a fantastic one-two punch to open the album. However, frontloading the two heaviest songs could be a misstep, as it may set an expectation. Rock/metal fans may get their hopes up that the whole album is similar (which it’s not) and it may scare off jazz fans before they even get to the later tracks that they might find more appealing.
Aside from the track order, the other area I’d be interested in tweaking is the production. That’s not to say it’s poorly done. It’s more to do with my lack of fandom for the typical jazz or math rock soundscape. The vibe for the guitar and drums are a little more “jangly” than I would prefer. The jazzier sections definitely have a recorded live-in-the-room feel which further separates itself from modern rock/metal production. If someone like Acle Kahney from Tesseract had produced this album it would be on another level. The addition of some extra space in the mix and tightening up the tone of the instrumentation would be welcome.
Arcing Wires has a bright future and it’s clear that they have the songwriting ability and the chops to possibly make an impact across a few different genres. That might be a blessing and a curse since they risk alienating the more stubborn fans of one genre with the use of another. It will be interesting to see if they will continue to walk that fine line between styles or if they will drift more in one direction than another. In the meantime, Arcing Wires deserves praise for a strong debut that stands out for its bold genre bending.
Recommended tracks: Catacaustic, Arc9, The Lizard
Recommended for fans of: Kneebody, Jaga Jazzist, Nova Collective, Panzerballett
Final verdict: 8/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram
Label: Art As Catharsis Records – Website | Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram
Arcing Wires is:
Nick Henderson – Electric Bass, Synths, Piano, Principle Editor, Additional Tracking Engineer
Yutaro Okuda – Electric Guitars, Electric Baritone Guitar
Felix Lalanne – Electric Guitars, Acoustic Guitar
Alex Hirlian – Drums, SPDX
Nish Manjunath – Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet, FX, Synths, Piano
0 Comments