The Octopus Project
Hello, Avalanche (Peek-a-Boo)Austin instrumental quartet the Octopus Project has evolutionized electronic textures and made them human. This is so much more than post-post-rock dabbledry; it’s warm and inviting, driven and emotional. Opening with the slow chill of xylophone and Yvonne Lambert’s multitracked theremin on “Snow Tip Cap Mountain,” Avalanche blasts familiar with speed trap “Truck,” surely a result of Toto Miranda’s inexhaustible energy. Unlike the dance party on 2004’s One Ten Hundred Thousand Million, their third and best LP layers live drums with machines (“Bees Bein’ Strugglin'”), studio tracks with demos, and coyness with sampler (“Mmaj”). The merger of digital and analog lives in outdoor looped recording “Upmann,” and Yvonne Lambert’s theremin prowess is spotlighted on “I Saw the Bright Shinies.” Not until the darkness of “Ghost Moves” does Oct Proj leap to the next rung, as Josh Lambert’s guitar shrieks and Miranda’s drums explode, the party becoming harsh reality. “Exploding Snowhorse” continues down the same emotional path, a manipulation of tambourine and hi-hat echoing footsteps on the pavement. Closing with lullaby “Queen,” the only noninstrumental track on the disc, the Octopus Project finds a confidence and musicianship that existed before but now shines bright, unafraid of preconception or assumption. Now it’s real.
This article appears in October 5 • 2007.