Part III of the UK series.

Tracking the Trends presents the third part of our three part series on the UK's emerging experimental/instrumental scene.

Part III

Tracer AMC
Belfast, Northern Ireland

Website:Tracer AMC
Music:Myspace


Northern Ireland's stunning post rock quartet, Tracer AMC, offers up a second dose of melodic guitar driven rock with their sophomore album, Islands. Following in the footsteps of the band's 2004 debut, Flux and Form, Islands expands Tracer AMC's artistic vision to accommodate a wider variety of instrumental tastes. While the band's main sound resonates with the earthy undertones of bands like Tortoise and Explosions in the Sky through lush, epic sounding sonic environments, Islands inevitably explores more energetic passages in songs like "Concorde" and "Indiscopia". Bendy guitar lines and upbeat drumming break down into a wash of reverb and cascading cymbals, which may draw an immediate memory of El Ten Eleven or Ellis the Vacuumchild. Still, it's difficult to deny the underlying human response found in "Paper Machete" or "In Rivers," where Tracer AMC navigates effortlessly through thick compositions and deflates the urgency of their music with pinpoint precision. Islands is definitely one of the sleeper hits of the year for the instrumental genre. It's not an album by anyone you'd expect to care about, nor one that grabs you initially, but after a few spins the beauty and emotion of the music begins to reveal itself through the complex layers of arrangements that ultimately are too powerful to deny.

With two full lengths under its belt, Tracer AMC is quickly picking up a strong momentum that should see it rising to the upper echelon of the instrumental crowd. It may be one of the European instrumental bands more heavily influenced by its American counterparts, but Tracer AMC effectively weaves together varying forms of presentation and composition to keep the music fluid enough to grasp the listener's attention. Islands may go unnoticed by many, but those who give it the attention it rightfully deserve will be delighted by the results and unable to question the direction of this band. Tracer AMC may be mostly unknown currently, but if strong release like Islands continue to appear, it'll quickly find itself selling out venues far and wide.



Bossk
Kent, England

Website:Bossk
Music:Myspace


With less than a year under its belt, Kent's Bossk marks out a serious stake of land with its debut EP .1.EP .1 combines the influences of the bands previous projects, Sevendice and Celestrial Anxiety as it juxtaposes rich, ambient layers ontop of dark, heavy riffs, creating a spacious temporal pocket which is quickly filled with terrifying chaotic breakdowns. Bossk utilizes a constant forward progression throughout their music and discards the idea of quiet/loud compositions, similar to that of Pelican or the otherworldly presentation of Rosetta. The EP contains only two songs, but they clock in over thirty minutes in length. "I" acts as a precursor to "II", setting the stage for calm, ambient mixes that recedes into a fury of metallic riffs and aggressively sliding drums. "II" resets the scene and steadily marches to a cataclysmic effigy. Wave after wave of intense, pedal laden guitar attacks creep into the auditory system and every so slowly push against the inner wall. The pressure slowly builds to the point of exultation, and an overwhelming sense of urgency deconstructs this EP. The only way to end such a cathartic build up is to sing the tunes of the metallic death scream. Vocals enter the picture to assist the rugged nature of this EP, effectively diverting the massive emotional drop and preventing a jarring disconnection with reality. "I" and "II" are more than enough to get the ball rolling in favor of Bossk who are clearly on the right track with EP .1

For a band with less than a year to its name, Bossk is on the right track to success. They have a sound that is diverse enough to attract both fans of the instrumental genre, as well as those who delve into the metal world. Fans of Daturah, Isis, and Rosetta should give this band its undivided attention, for it makes a strong appearance onto the music scene, and surely this is just the beginning.



Cathode Ray Syndrome*
Cambridge, England

Website:Cathode Ray Syndrome*
Music:Myspace


Cathode Ray Syndrome* excretes a jumpy, kinetic appearance that hammers home the rock aspect of its instrumental roots. The band's 2005 release, Use Forgotten Tools takes a traditional approach to the genre, foregoing superfluous frills and instead focusing on the organic interaction between its instruments. Bass and rhythm guitars steadily pound away through the diluted composition and drive the music further down into a rampant deluge. While Cathode Ray Syndrome* sticks to the basics in Use Forgotten Tools, it offers a variety of styles to sample. By way of its dedication to form and progression over lengthy meanderings, you might compare Cathode Ray Syndrome* to fellow UK experimentalists The Exploits of Elaine or to US instrumentalists Dysrhythmia. The sound the band creates is dark and brooding, yet harmonic and engaging at the same time. Little work is done in the area of tension building and landscape leveling, as the formulaic post-rock methodology is compromised for a more direct approach that concerns itself more with the shear quantitative force driving its music. Songs such as "Solutions for Solved Problems" and "The Cathode Fucking Ray" develop this line of thinking, while tracks "Princess-X" and "Kneejerk Feeling" explore a more enchanting sound for the band.

Use Forgotten Tools is a great release from a band that is beginning to separate itself from the rest of the instrumental crowd and settle into its own sound. Progressive art rock rests side by side with concise post-rock to fully develop the mind-set of Cathode Ray Syndrome*. Each release sees this band coming more into their own and beginning to realize the potential it collective holds.

Souvaris
Hertfordshire, England

Website:Souvaris
Music:Myspace


Souvaris breaks away from the normal post-rock mold by delving into ambient textural layers that placate the senses through repetitive guitar licks and drum beats that steadily build toward a romantic cleansing of the pallete. A healthy amount of instruments are sample by the band, but nothing every gets too cluttered or chaotic, as the band is conscious to give the different sound waves ample space to explore within the confines of its musical space. On some levels, Souvaris often avoids the undulating build-up/tension release schema of the genre and simply experiments with pushing the listener's attention to the very maximum of its capacity. There is a very subtle build up in the work of Souvaris, which is brilliantly shown in their Matador of Shame EP, but it's very easy to miss that the songs are on a steady incline. It's even easier to miss when the top of the incline is reached, and when the song then takes a downward turn. This approach truly redefines the meaning of the word patient, and could be faulted on the excessive meandering of the band, but somehow Souvaris manages to tie it all together into a coherent piece. It's not always exactly clear what the goal of this band is, but the resulting journey is never disappointing.

I always feel like Souvaris is headed for a great epiphany that will see them taking their music to the next level and fully realizing the scope of the music they create. Currently, it seems like Souvaris has simply stumbled upon this great songwriting technique and doesn't quite understand how to exploit it. In time the band will become masters of this style and the resulting works will be breathtaking.

Part Rocket
Cardiff, Wales

Website:Part Rocket
Music:Part Rocket


England's Part Rocket follows in the footsteps of fellow political instrumentalists From Monument to Masses and 65 Days of Static in creating music that not only opens the ears, but also challenges the mind. Audio samples rest on top of blistering drum beats and ragged guitar lines to bring together a full emotional response that begs to liberate the mind from the conformist dogma. The band's recently released Kneel Before the Throne and Drink the Blood of Your Own boils Part Rocket down into two songs that are a bit lengthier than previously attempted, but pulls together the band's vision nicely. Adopting a quiet/loud approach, Part Rocket utilizes very patriotic sounding drummer boy style beats with anthem-like chords to string a cold juxtaposition to the haunting audio samples. "Cosby, Bills, and Cash" pushes this to the extreme end, combining aggressive post-rock and audio in the faux-impersonation of patriotism to combat the corruption underlying our society. When all is said and done Part Rocket stitches together a moving work of art that connects with the listener on multiple levels and engages it in ways that many acts care not to touch.

While the vision of Part Rocket is stellar, there is till room for maturity in the musical aspect of the band that could be extracted in order to achieve a more powerful emotional response from the music. As is, the band is exhibiting a solid line of progression in its music and showing all indicators that it is on its way to blossoming into a monumental the artistic force in the rock world.

~Jordan Volz