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Asbestoscape - Asbestoscape

Rating

RIYL

Isis
Nine Inch Nails
Amon Tobin
Nadja

Tracklist

1 Arctic
2 Return
3 Mono
4 And So the Story Goes......
5 Like Shit Attracting Flies
6 Ashen
7 Thursday

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Recent Ratings
Rick Gebhardt

It’s a difficult task to mix many disparate sounds together and end up with something that’s actually worth a listen. The key to making it listenable is to find the common ground between each of the incorporated elements.

Now picture a Venn Diagram with four events - Nine Inch Nails (A), Isis (B), Amon Tobin (C), and Nadja (D) – all of which intersect. The intersection of these four events is the set of elements contained in all four events (A ∩ B ∩ C ∩ D), which in this case happens to be the element of dark sounds. You can think of Asbestoscape as a quasi quadruple hybrid who combine the brooding heaviness of Isis, the dark industrial feel of Nine Inch Nails, the crazy breakbeats of Amon Tobin, and the droning ambience of Nadja and bind them together by their common thread of darkness.

Asbestoscape’s self-titled debut is an impressive feat in regards to sound. The album mixes together the aforementioned sounds and though does nothing remarkably fresh or cutting edge, still manages to be quite an enjoyable listen. However, where this album thrives in sound, it lacks in songwriting.

All the songs are pretty much a variation of the same structure, making it all feel a bit contrived. Songs begin with the bare minimum (usually a lone guitar) and slowly enough different sounds are layered upon one another until the song peaks and the layers are then either removed one by one or are all removed bar a lone element which rides to safety just how Pierce Brosnan sped away from the cloud of death in Dante’s Peak, which by the way was not a very good film. A good example of this is the song “Mono” which starts with delayed guitar riffs and is then joined by what sounds like muddied up cymbals. A killer beat then drops and some distorted guitars drone through until they are joined by melodic guitars. The layers all marinate until everything suddenly halts and the lone delayed guitar hobbles away.

Overall, Asbestoscape does a good job mixing sounds together, making the album flow, and building a dark atmosphere. However, on their own, the songs might not be much to harp on about and might not have much replay value. Nevertheless, Asbestoscape is a solid and enjoyable debut that shows a promising future.

--Armand Babian

Author

babarm87

Last updated: 09/29/2009 08:59PM

Comments

ATOMIChaelBOMB

10/04/2007

07:51AM

Age: 29

Location
Claremont, CA

rmgebhardt

Now picture a Venn Diagram with four events - Nine Inch Nails (A), Isis (B), Amon Tobin (C), and Nadja (D) – all of which intersect. The intersection of these four events is the set of elements contained in all four events (A ∩ B ∩ C ∩ D), which in this case happens to be the element of dark sounds.

oh no you didn't...haha, venn diagrams in a music review. god i love decoy.