The Octopus Project
Hello, Avalanche
October 9th 2007
Peek-A-Boo Records
Part garage rock, part NES music protocol, and part taurine infused melodics, The Octopus Project’s Hello, Avalanche bravely transverses the boundary between electronica and post rock. The most apparent feature of this band is their overt interjection of digital melody and animated instrumentation into a genre that typically prizes subtly and droning repetition. A song will alternately run a sampled scale and a barrage of distorted noise, punctuating the electro-beats with organic instruments, disallowing the music to remain suspended in an epic or sprawling delay.
Hello, Avalanche was co-produced by Ryan Hadlock of Blonde Redhead, Eagle Seagull credit. The record again highlights Hadlock’s uncanny nose for talent. The hybridity created by The Octopus Project is extraordinarily pleasing to the pop senses. They allow for the striking textural juxtapositions of bands like Xiu Xiu, yet have kept the discordant ambiguities to a minimum. While the suppression of dissonance is in no way an inherent reason to praise, it is a nice contrast to music of equal scale but of jarring composition.
For those of you who are tired of bands that seek to reproduce the melodies of Tortoise, the sequence execution of The Album Leaf, or the gravity of Explosions in the Sky, know that Hello, Avalanche is a contribution to the modern music soundscape of unique and particular character. The Octopus Project allows the audience to dance as they marvel at a functioning collection of flesh and blood, rather simply to listen with a dissatisfied and disinterested ear. This is the balance they strike; they have a defined structure without sounding sterile or methodical. Who knew Austin…who knew?
-FF
http://www.myspace.com/theoctopusproject
http://www.theoctopusproject.com/
Other Music
Identification Parade- 2002
One Ten Hundred Thousand Million- 2005
Tour
08/02 Chicago, IL Schuba’s w/ Okkervil River
08/03 Chicago, IL Lollapalooza Myspace Stage at 11:30am.
08/04 Kansas City, MO Record Bar
08/05 Norman, OK Opolis 08/06 Lubbock, TX Tequila Station
08/11 Phoenix, AZ Rhythm Room w/ Diagonals
08/12 Tucson, AZ Congress Theater w/ Diagonals
08/13 San Diego, CA TBA w/ Diagonals
08/14 Los Angeles, CA Knitting Factory w/ Diagonals
08/15 Visalia, CA Cellar Door w/ Diagonals
08/16 San Francisco, CA Bottom of the Hill w/ Diagonals
08/18 Portland, OR Satyricon w/ Diagonals
08/19 Seattle, WA Nectar Lounge w/ Diagonals
08/20 Vancouver, BC Richard’s
08/22 Edmonton, ALB Velvet Underground
08/23 Calgary, ALB Hi Fi
08/25 Salt Lake City, UT Urban Lounge
08/26 Denver, CO Hi Dive
08/28 Ft. Worth, TX Lola’s w/ Diagonals
08/29 Houston, TX Warehouse Live w/ Diagonals
09/28 Austin, TX Austin City Limits
