Until recently THE ATTIKA STATE were a band I’d heard of, but had ignorantly dismissed as ‘another UK post-hardcore band’. However it turns out that their debut full length is perhaps the surprise package of the year so far. The first time I listened to ‘Genesis & Catastrophe’ and realised the band are partly based locally to me was perhaps the equivalent to being smacked across the chops with a large salmon; I was quite literally stunned.
TAS’ sound has been likened to that of My Awesome Compilation crossed with the technicalities of Coheed & Cambria but there’s a lot more depth on this record than that comparison suggests. Granted there are big melodies and thoughtfully structured songs throughout, but ‘Genesis & Catastrophe is an album which reeks of a higher level of intelligence and maturity, especially so as it is the bands debut full length. Fortunately, through my ears anyway, the album escapes the clutches of pretentiousness and although it does flirt with experimentation the end result is only beneficial as TAS quite clearly have the ability to pull it off.
What is particularly striking about this record is the dynamic structures of the songs; things can switch comfortably from low-key melodica (which can even include a trumpet – Sleep:Repeat) to a more in your face heavier passage at a moments notice. The songs refuse to adhere to any rigid structure and again clearly benefit from this creativity as they never really sound uncomfortable or disjointed; again this is all highly impressive from a debut album!
The production, whilst doing well in capturing the low-key moments, doesn’t really deal so well with the louder riffs which hinders the impact of the transitions. Don’t get me wrong though; it doesn’t sound like they recorded through a Fisher Price toy recorder by any stretch of the imagination. There’s just a bit more bite and polish needed in places to accentuate the dynamism of the songs especially as the vocals seem to fluctuate in the mix a bit too much for my liking.
THE ATTIKA STATE are clearly a talented band and have in this release done themselves proud. I’ve yet to see them live but if they can match their recorded efforts it won’t be long until they are a big player in the UK scene. I don’t want to over hype them but TAS are really quite an exciting prospect indeed; I don’t need to use my crystal ball to predict good things at all.
-Mike
www.theattikastate.co.uk
www.positiveimpactrecords.com