Antigen Shift - Brotherhood
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Much has changed in between Nick Thériault's début as Antigen Shift at the dawn of this century and his latest record Brotherhood. Not only did his long time live collaboration with Jairus Khan of Ad·ver·sary finally gave birth to a full fledged merger of their musical concepts but also provided Thériault with an opportunity to expand beyond the usual scope of his dense, distorted but rhythmic opus. The more things change however, the more they stay the same and Brotherhood, released courtesy of Signifier Records, never fully sheds its link to the past.
The rhythm of every track is distinctly dictating the feel and flow of the entire album and Brotherhood is effectively far less meandering and more kinetic than the past material of either Antigen Shift or Ad·ver·sary. From the very first moments of "Forced" for example, the emerging formula is that of mood defining, cinematic escalation, enhanced constantly by the barrage of pulsating sounds and whizzing distortions. Without ever loosing sight of the tracks' heartbeat, most music on Antigen's latest benefits from the firm focus on underlying the noise, propelling current.
It occasionally feels disjointed as if skipping from one mode of expression to another but while those separate building blocks might not be as cohesive as one would hope as a whole, most of the tracks on Brotherhood convey band's message with confidence and absorbing sense of pace. The entire album seems to flow forward freely, conjured or rather improvised on the spot but in spite of this loose agreement between individual styles it retains a satisfying clarity of its aesthetic. Cemented by the diversity of influences and a thoughtful construction of the entire track list that moves between the IDM influences of "Colliding Clusters", sensuous grind of "Breakaway" and full on break-beat assault of "This Is An Exit".
Lengthy, isolated guitar chords on "Get Off My Lawn" seem transfixed within much lighter arrangement of beats that constantly hints at manic, schizophrenic context of the track, into which Antigen happily slips again and again. It's all carefully enough arranged, to never betray the dominant façade, and instead provide the listener with a sense of discovery and surprise which indeed can be found across the records fourteen tracks. The energy of each composition can be easily distilled into forward moving, dynamic melodies and passages of opulent, haunting instrumentations but the overall appeal of Brotherhood is much more complex than that.
Beyond the recognizable, if subtle, change of direction Brotherhood offers a rich and rewarding experience for Antigen Shift's fans and newcomers alike. Like a precisely calculated curve ball, this latest record from Ottawa's Nick Thériault is determined to break new ground and aided by Ad·ver·sary's Jairus Khan, Antigen sets on a backtrack journey through the atmospheric, ambient driven sounds-capes of the past releases, and towards some uncharted territories of crisp melodies and dynamic soundscapes.
Tracklist:
01. Forced
02. The Games We Played As Children
03. Angry Pillbox
04. Legion
05. Godkrusher
06. Breakaway
07. Colliding Clusters
08. Console Nation
09. This Is An Exit
10. Get Off My Lawn
11. Reborn1130
12. So Much Closer Now
13. November
14. Extraction
The rhythm of every track is distinctly dictating the feel and flow of the entire album and Brotherhood is effectively far less meandering and more kinetic than the past material of either Antigen Shift or Ad·ver·sary. From the very first moments of "Forced" for example, the emerging formula is that of mood defining, cinematic escalation, enhanced constantly by the barrage of pulsating sounds and whizzing distortions. Without ever loosing sight of the tracks' heartbeat, most music on Antigen's latest benefits from the firm focus on underlying the noise, propelling current.
It occasionally feels disjointed as if skipping from one mode of expression to another but while those separate building blocks might not be as cohesive as one would hope as a whole, most of the tracks on Brotherhood convey band's message with confidence and absorbing sense of pace. The entire album seems to flow forward freely, conjured or rather improvised on the spot but in spite of this loose agreement between individual styles it retains a satisfying clarity of its aesthetic. Cemented by the diversity of influences and a thoughtful construction of the entire track list that moves between the IDM influences of "Colliding Clusters", sensuous grind of "Breakaway" and full on break-beat assault of "This Is An Exit".
Lengthy, isolated guitar chords on "Get Off My Lawn" seem transfixed within much lighter arrangement of beats that constantly hints at manic, schizophrenic context of the track, into which Antigen happily slips again and again. It's all carefully enough arranged, to never betray the dominant façade, and instead provide the listener with a sense of discovery and surprise which indeed can be found across the records fourteen tracks. The energy of each composition can be easily distilled into forward moving, dynamic melodies and passages of opulent, haunting instrumentations but the overall appeal of Brotherhood is much more complex than that.
Beyond the recognizable, if subtle, change of direction Brotherhood offers a rich and rewarding experience for Antigen Shift's fans and newcomers alike. Like a precisely calculated curve ball, this latest record from Ottawa's Nick Thériault is determined to break new ground and aided by Ad·ver·sary's Jairus Khan, Antigen sets on a backtrack journey through the atmospheric, ambient driven sounds-capes of the past releases, and towards some uncharted territories of crisp melodies and dynamic soundscapes.
Tracklist:
01. Forced
02. The Games We Played As Children
03. Angry Pillbox
04. Legion
05. Godkrusher
06. Breakaway
07. Colliding Clusters
08. Console Nation
09. This Is An Exit
10. Get Off My Lawn
11. Reborn1130
12. So Much Closer Now
13. November
14. Extraction
