You know, when the three first songs of a record kicks ass, while the rest of the album is weaker. Well, it’s often like that, but not the case on Ancient Asobi / In Arcadia. It starts great with “Narcoleptic Highway,” “Skull & Bones” and “Jor-El,” songs that have been out for a while, and after that, the greatness continues.
This is absolutely a good debut from the norwegian octet with members from (among others) Le Corbeau, Serena Maneesh, Far From Tellus, Mindy Misty and Donjon Doxy. I wouldn’t call it a supergroup, but rather a collaboration beetween experienced musicians from the underground scene in Oslo. And as I said, it starts really good with “Narcoleptic Highway,” which is a good indicator of how the rest of the album is. It’s a bit noisy, a bit drony, full of counterpoints, complex drumming and polyrythmic, but tight. Everything is really thight, just as tight as Deep Purple or Led Zeppelin.
“Narcoleptic Highway” and the rest of the album draws a lot of inspiration from late 80’s and 90’s indie music. Last time I wrote about them, I described them as shoegazenoisehypnokrautpsychedelic rock. I think that genre fits them, and their kind of genre eclectism. They play music of a variety of different genres, but all the genres are subgenres or another kind of alternative rock.
Even though they draw a lot of inspiration from other bands, they manage to create their own distinctive sound. A song I think really shows this is the great “Skull and Bones.” It starts quietly with just a clean guitar, before a synth and a fast strumming guitar, then the rest of the band comes in. The drums make an atmospheric beat, helped by the repeating melody in the synth. Then the vocal comes in, both asking, proclaiming and answering. And then it continues, atmospheric and droning before it ends in cacophony and noise filled with synth beeps and glitches.
I don’t have much to complain on with this album. It’s tight and as a whole it’s awesome. The songs are good, even though some of them lack a bit of catchiness. The biggest problem is that both guitar and vocal can tend to get a little bit futile, and don’t catch your attention as much as you’d like. Still, this is one of my favourite albums of 2010 so far, and it’s a great debut from what I believe is a band with a bright future.
Below is their new video for the song “Jor-El,” made by drummer Øystein Monsen.