Member:
ffroyd
(Profile)
(All Album Reviews by ffroyd)
Date:
12/3/2001
Format:
CD (Album)
Audesys are an excellent young band from Townsville in Queensland, Australia. The group consists of David Roy on guitars, Adam Gardner on drums, Neelan Gopal on bass, Matthew Booy on Keyboards and Lana Martino-Smith on vocals. The music they play is quite unique, incorporating may different styles including metal, jazz-fusion and electronic elements. One thing that really impresses me is the dynamic nature of the music; it can go from quite soft and somber to blisteringly heavy in the blink of an eye. This is one of those albums that grows on me every time I listen to it. I was impressed on the first play but each time I listen to it I find new things to appreciate.
The CD opens up with “Memory Lapse” which prominently features the wonderful voice of Lana Martino-Smith. She has a stunning deep voice that reminds me of a cross between Pat Benatar and Siouxsie Sioux. The next song, “Fast”, is probably the catchiest number on the album, I’ve already caught myself singing it a few times since first hearing the CD.
Things kick into high gear with “[preset] Aggressive” an appropriately titled very heavy song. This is probably my favorite from the album. A lot of this CD reminds me of some of Porcupine Tree’s music, very cerebral and spacey. The title cut is a short little atmospheric number with haunting synth and electronic drums. This leads into “Gunshy” which is a nice mellow psychedelic piece. “One In A Million” is a beautiful little song that features some wonderful acoustic guitar behind Lana’s gorgeous voice.
“Wasteland Anomaly” is another short but effective synth piece that leads into “Utopian Machine.” This is the most progressive track on the album incorporating a nice bit of sitar, swiriling keyboards and lots of complex electric guitar work. This is mostly instrumental but there are a few wordless vocal lines toward the end. This piece really shows off the talent of the band.
Not content with just releasing a plain old CD, they’ve added quite a bit more material on the CD-ROM portion of the disc. There are MP3s that contain demos, live versions of songs and even the entire contents of their debut EP can be found on the disc. I think the future will be very bright for this young band from down under.
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