Beekstraat 1 - B-2640 Mortsel - Belgium

AMPLIFIER: The Astronaut Dismantles Hal (ep)

Release

Style

Sometimes you discover a band you have never heard of before. In this case, it was a simplistic CD cover with a sketch of a stage set-up that was brought to my attention. Amplifier is an English band, operating from Manchester, which plays a rich amount of styles. Their music brings you into a psychedelic cosmic rock atmosphere with influences of Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Police, Massive Attack, and David Bowie. With all these bands as their examples, they have developed a rather original musical style. On some tracks, I even heard touches of U2, Radiohead, Tool & Oasis! The structure of the songs is quite original, but not very technical. Varied guitar work, covered with electronic effects, bass lines with a distorted sound, all held together by good drum-work.

“Continuum” sets the trend for the whole album with its calm but straight rock passages. It lifts you up to a higher atmosphere. “Into The Space Age” also starts with a cosmic intro, but after that the song rocks your heart out. In this one, I’d like to mention Muse as an influence too. “For Marcia” has some nice eastern patterns if you listen very carefully. “The Brain Room” is a short instrumental piece with sample effects and it flows into the intro of “Everyday Combat”. The last one, “Live Human”, is with its 14:28 minutes the longest track on the album, but the song seems to end after 5:30 minutes! After several minutes of silence, the second part of the song starts at the tenth minute. Many people listening to the album for the first time may think that it ends after part 1, but the last part in particular is worth listening to. Maybe it would have been better to put the second part closer to the first part, or mark it on the cover as “part 1” & “part 2”. 

In general, the album is a good and original one in its own way, with an amazingly rich sound for a three-man band. Not great, but good.
 

Musicians

Continuum (8:50)
Into The Space Age (4:58)
For Marcia (4:57)
The Brain Room (0:56)
Everyday Combat (5:32)
Live Human (14:28)

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Last updated: 05 februari 2006 .
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