hihi,
our friends (&bandmates) tracer amc have put their first two albums up on that there itunes (and the others), which i guess is news because you could only really get their stuff in road records before..
hear: http://www.last.fm/music/Tracer+AMC
make friends: myspace.com/traceramc
er: www.traceramc.co.uk
they'll be playing shows again early next year and if you'd like them where you are, just ask: [email protected]
***********
new AU review of the two records (sorry for making a long post):
TRACER AMC
FLUX AND FORM (8/10)
ISLANDS (9/10)
(WE LOVE RECORDS)
From humble beginnings as a late-nineties trio aping their post-rock heroes, instrumental rock quartet Tracer AMC have quietly grown into one of the most respected acts from these shores. Now, with a worldwide following (including, famously, their screaming Japanese devotees) and a new record due in 2008, they have decided to make their first two albums available online.
Anyone picking up 2004’s debut album ‘Flux And Form’ would have been gobsmacked at just how fully-formed the quartet’s music already was, but considering they had been active for a good five years previous to its release, this was hardly surprising. The album opens with ‘Some Electric’. Gently picked guitars form a brittle, glistening melody, which is then joined by bass, drums and a desolate violin. The music gradually builds in ferocity before erupting into focussed violence, all distortion, screaming string melody and apocalyptic tub-thumping. So far, so generic. But then, at the peak of the song’s intensity, something strange happens; it suddenly breaks down into a gentle, loping rhythm, replete with subtle string bending, cymbal washes and handclaps. It’s a beautiful, unexpected moment, and sets out the Tracer AMC stall perfectly. They know how to play the post-rock quiet-loud game to a T, but are determined to do things differently, to confound expectations, to raise the bar for instrumental music at every turn. ‘Some Electric’ is immediately followed by the title track, which instantly wrong-foots the listener with its inimitable time signature (I defy you to follow it on first listen), phantom guitar echoes and buried glockenspiel, before suddenly switching back on track with a brief, startlingly fierce middle section and then changing tack again for a haunting reprise of its awkward inception. Moments of note crop up right throughout the album: the almost medieval-sounding melodies of ‘Catherine Holly’; the folky ‘The Understudy’; ‘Anvil Point’s Labradford-esque ambience; the distant, shoegaze blur of ‘Tycho’. There’s more variety here than many of their peers manage across a career.
As good as ‘Flux And Form’ is, though, the following year’s ‘Islands’ tops it with a virtuoso display of technical ability and constructional nous. Epic live staple ‘Paper Machete’ initiates proceedings with its stop-start opening groove and layered melodic noise, ebbing and flowing between the quietest contemplation and levels of noise that threaten to shake the planet from its axis. The production is different class – the band now sound immense; huge swathes of sound rumble up through the mix on command and yet still allow the listener to discern every tiny glockenspiel tinkle. ‘In Rivers’ glides from shimmering feedback cascades to a rolling, tribal centre and on to an upbeat gallop quite unlike anything heard elsewhere in this ultra-codified genre. ‘Bird’ is highly unusual, a semi-discordant, single-guitar workout, while restrained, cinematic set-pieces like ‘Chalk’ and ‘Willow Drive, Hoboken’ showcase a band now fully in control of the astonishing noise they have harnessed. Best of the lot, and incorporating virtually every element of Tracer’s arsenal, is epic closer ‘You Follow The Snow And Are Wasted’, as good an example of how mesmerising, inspiring and downright thrilling instrumental rock can be as you’re ever likely to hear. Now roll on album number three. Lee Gorman
DOWNLOAD: The whole shebang, but especially ‘Some Electric’, ‘Flux And Form’, ‘Paper Machete’ and ‘You Follow The Snow And Are Wasted’
our friends (&bandmates) tracer amc have put their first two albums up on that there itunes (and the others), which i guess is news because you could only really get their stuff in road records before..
hear: http://www.last.fm/music/Tracer+AMC
make friends: myspace.com/traceramc
er: www.traceramc.co.uk
they'll be playing shows again early next year and if you'd like them where you are, just ask: [email protected]
***********
new AU review of the two records (sorry for making a long post):
TRACER AMC
FLUX AND FORM (8/10)
ISLANDS (9/10)
(WE LOVE RECORDS)
From humble beginnings as a late-nineties trio aping their post-rock heroes, instrumental rock quartet Tracer AMC have quietly grown into one of the most respected acts from these shores. Now, with a worldwide following (including, famously, their screaming Japanese devotees) and a new record due in 2008, they have decided to make their first two albums available online.
Anyone picking up 2004’s debut album ‘Flux And Form’ would have been gobsmacked at just how fully-formed the quartet’s music already was, but considering they had been active for a good five years previous to its release, this was hardly surprising. The album opens with ‘Some Electric’. Gently picked guitars form a brittle, glistening melody, which is then joined by bass, drums and a desolate violin. The music gradually builds in ferocity before erupting into focussed violence, all distortion, screaming string melody and apocalyptic tub-thumping. So far, so generic. But then, at the peak of the song’s intensity, something strange happens; it suddenly breaks down into a gentle, loping rhythm, replete with subtle string bending, cymbal washes and handclaps. It’s a beautiful, unexpected moment, and sets out the Tracer AMC stall perfectly. They know how to play the post-rock quiet-loud game to a T, but are determined to do things differently, to confound expectations, to raise the bar for instrumental music at every turn. ‘Some Electric’ is immediately followed by the title track, which instantly wrong-foots the listener with its inimitable time signature (I defy you to follow it on first listen), phantom guitar echoes and buried glockenspiel, before suddenly switching back on track with a brief, startlingly fierce middle section and then changing tack again for a haunting reprise of its awkward inception. Moments of note crop up right throughout the album: the almost medieval-sounding melodies of ‘Catherine Holly’; the folky ‘The Understudy’; ‘Anvil Point’s Labradford-esque ambience; the distant, shoegaze blur of ‘Tycho’. There’s more variety here than many of their peers manage across a career.
As good as ‘Flux And Form’ is, though, the following year’s ‘Islands’ tops it with a virtuoso display of technical ability and constructional nous. Epic live staple ‘Paper Machete’ initiates proceedings with its stop-start opening groove and layered melodic noise, ebbing and flowing between the quietest contemplation and levels of noise that threaten to shake the planet from its axis. The production is different class – the band now sound immense; huge swathes of sound rumble up through the mix on command and yet still allow the listener to discern every tiny glockenspiel tinkle. ‘In Rivers’ glides from shimmering feedback cascades to a rolling, tribal centre and on to an upbeat gallop quite unlike anything heard elsewhere in this ultra-codified genre. ‘Bird’ is highly unusual, a semi-discordant, single-guitar workout, while restrained, cinematic set-pieces like ‘Chalk’ and ‘Willow Drive, Hoboken’ showcase a band now fully in control of the astonishing noise they have harnessed. Best of the lot, and incorporating virtually every element of Tracer’s arsenal, is epic closer ‘You Follow The Snow And Are Wasted’, as good an example of how mesmerising, inspiring and downright thrilling instrumental rock can be as you’re ever likely to hear. Now roll on album number three. Lee Gorman
DOWNLOAD: The whole shebang, but especially ‘Some Electric’, ‘Flux And Form’, ‘Paper Machete’ and ‘You Follow The Snow And Are Wasted’
