The AntlersUndersea
ANTI- Records [2012]
Fire Note Says: The Antlers new ep, Undersea, lives up to its title!
Album
Review:
I
was a little bit disappointed with The Antler’s album from last year, Burst Apart. How do you follow up a
great album like Hospice, their 2009
lp? Apparently the answer was to completely change their sound and making an
album that sounded more awash in keyboards than guitars, moving the vocals
forward in the mix adding lots of drum loops and generally cleaning things up.
It sounded like another band entirely, albeit a pretty decent one.
Where
would the band go with their newest ep, Undersea,
described as an ep in length but an lp in scope? The answer is to completely
reinvent themselves once again into an atmospheric post rock band! Think of Undersea
as Explosions in the Sky meets Shearwater, or Sigur Ros fronted by James
Mercer. It’s very good atmospheric music, that ebbs and flows, and often times
seems to float just barely there until it comes to a crashing crescendo.
At
4 songs and 22 minutes long, Undersea
seems to be in no real hurry to get to any one place in particular. There is a
plenty of space on these tracks, which lets the music breathe. Whereas on Burst Apart, they seemed intent on
packing as many sounds into each track as possible, here they do just the
opposite. It’s very effective at evoking the feeling of being adrift at sea,
floating wherever the current takes you. It’s clear that The Antlers have
accomplished exactly what they set out to do with Undersea, I hope they continue to work in this vein for a while
longer, I think that they have another great album in them, and this Undersea just might be the blueprint!
Key
Tracks: “Drift Dive”, “Endless Ladder”, “Crest”
Bands
With Similar Fire:
Sigur
Ros
The
Shins
-Reviewed by Kevin Poindexter
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