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Kate Campbell anti-industry
http://www.anti-industry.com/phpBB2/kb.php?mode=article&k=35
Aderbat
5/5
by Kate Campbell ( profile )
Favorite Tracks:
Seriously? The whole goddamn album.
Quote:
There are very few bands I fall instantly and immediately in love with. Aderbat caught me the instant I heard them. By the time my grubby paws got the CD, it had earned a spot sitting on constant rotation with Muse and mellowdrone. This album is more than music; Rabbits and Rocks is the most exquisite painting ever made. I am floored.
Aderbat makes stunning parallels to obscure bands I didn't even know I knew. Imagine the gentle vocal cadence of Sade shaped with Dido's pixie innocence. This music is soft and rich, mature and eloquent. Meditative. The storytelling of Travis. The fluttering melodies of Jeff Buckley.
The placid excursion of the song arrangements will probably fool the majority population, and I feel privileged to get this band. You can hear a feather-light modulation in the singer's voice, but you can feel the lyrics coming from the underlying guitar layers. It's a carnival of sound that paints a picture in amber hues.
The first thing I liked about this album is the way the songs flow into each other. There is no other way to say it. Aderbat manages to lead you down their own path, showing you sights but never trapping you in their music. There is no repetition, there is no rehash of emotions or melodies. Every song is distinct and whole, with beginnings and ends unbroken like a serpent eating its tail. This usually means a band has a wealth of expression, and it's one of my buttons.
"Come Love" is a perfect example of what else I love about their songwriting. They know how to subtly underscore different aspects of their music by lowering levels, taking a chord down to its arpeggio, changing the focus from the singer to the drums in the middle of the song. I feel like a baby gawking at a shiny mobile. I can't get enough of the effects that are precisely and perfectly placed.
"I Need Someone" changes tracks to something slightly more jazzy, and the Dido-esque breathy vocals feels like that scratchy, rainy Sunday morning voice your lover might use. Their versatility is not overstated - it's remarked upon like a simple fact.
I absolutely, positively love this album. It's not my normal taste, either, I prefer the punch and obviously stated expression of rock bands. I would give Aderbat a 6/5 if I could. I'm incapable of being bored or tired of this album.
Trust me, I've tried.
- Anti-industry.com
Discography
Rabbits and Rocks, our debut full length album was released in June of 2004.
* 4 different tracks played by various DJs on AAA radio
WXPN 88.5, Philadelphia
* WXPN 2005 release of their Philadelphia Local
compilation CD, Right On Track, including Aderbat's
"Many Ways"
* Airplay on commercial rock radio Y100, 100.3 FM,
Philadelphia.
* Track 2, "Bye Bye," used in an episode of CBS's Joan
of Arcadia.
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Describing Taylor's face is always a problem; it's either poetry or fudge. Reputed to look a combination of Dylan, Kramer and Art Garfunkle, the stage visual gets kind of mutable. I suppose that's not exactly what he's thinking about on these messy violent days, but it must be cool to see yourself circulating through the media like warm blood - one solid minute of Aderbat backdrop paired to a recent television episode - and how does it feel? The songs remain envelopes of contemporary history, stamped with Taylor's gray sunshine voice. And these are happy gray tunes - on a gray baking day - some sweet, some dark. The question aesthetically addressed here is...how does one live an integral life while being slammed against the sound of retreating windmills? And what are the visions one projects into the future when forced to gaze through the shrinking windows of dead industry? At their best, Aderbat sketches out a slim margin of humanness with three-minute spy novels of the heart. The band sounds sinister and clear; little epiphanies of sound to keep you warm, off center and melodically caffienated. This is a transmission with a skittering groove. Ok, so the first guitarist didn't want to be a rock star, he's busy sketching his Matisse grilfriend in a wasted basement in Doylestown - no more New Wave Motown - but the new guitar sound is moment by numbers found jazz discovery, courtesy of Covatta, temporarily dropped out of Berklee, pointillist, and, you know, cool about it. Kunkle remains glassy eyed and suburban, plays bass a little funkier on stage. The girls all call him "hot Brad" cause being metro sexual means you don't have to say goodbye. Todd still punches people out with his dark drummer's humor and perfect fills, take your pick, and meanwhile particles of light fall on the skin of everyone. So cut the stars from the silver ships and place them in the catapult sky... Aderbat's throwing some corporate shade of their own - tying shoes on Broadway - but what do you do when you become a glass donkey? When you start to weave inside the media net and all of your thoughts are joined to ours? Aderbat doesn't hang out too long in purple negativity cause they do have some dreams to launch and yes, I'll have another glass of wine. copyright 2005 charles landy
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