Particle And Wave. avoid!avoid

It took me a while to take a shine to Particle And Wave. The first listen session I had a mixed feeling of that's not for me and been there, done that. But sitting on my iPod, where I store all new music for regular reference when on route, songs tend to come by when the thing, accidentally, bumps into shuffle mode. That was how I found my way into Particle And Wave and started to come back to the whole album. And now it's time for a review. Things do change sometimes.

I do not have a lot of albums like this one. Perhaps the closest one is by Marble Sheep, but that is a lot trippier. avoid!avoid does not mind to rock out, loud, in longish, instrumental songs. Without me being able to call the music rock, there's no other description then rock out to describe what is happening here. Let's focus on the start. In 'Polytechnik' the sound is direct, extremely sound, like driving into a musical wall, with a guitar on steroids. Not in speed, but certainly in effects. At a certain point the guitar is so psyched up that the noise sort of pretends to disappear from the spectrum of what my ear is able to catch. It is the drums that holds the song up, is the centre piece. Underneath it all are dark electronics doubling for the bass and producing all sorts of trippy sounds. The album continues in this vain, with an important note that the synthesizers become much more prominent.

'Flybussen' has an emotionless sort of vocal delivery. There is much more keyboard playing going on here. Again the drums are prominent. A loud, continuous pattern is played. So tight it could be a loop. As a whole it makes me think of New Order, were it not for the loud guitar that morphs in and out of the song. The toneless singing makes me think of my favourite Tubeway Army song 'Are Friends Electric?'.  No matter how "simple" the structure of 'Flybussen' is, the song intrigues from start to finish. The switch from the undercooled start to the fleshed out part is excellent.

Promo Photo

The more spacey 'Ultra Deep Field' is still is not my favourite, more experiment than music. But, these songs are long. All clock over six minutes. From the spacey sounds the drum emerges and kicks the whole structure under the butt. And I guess that there is the secret to my starting to like the album. The tremendous kick of the drums! They make Particle And Wave come alive and from there I started to appreciate the droning music more and more. There is just so much energy here. I feel like at CERN testing all these particles.

avoid!avoid is from New Zealand and a new trio. The band released an EP before called 'Low Earth Orbit'. Must be about satellites, I guess. Sonya Waters plays keyboards and sings, Stephen Ray produces all these more normal and totally out there guitar sounds, and the bio forgets to mention what Brendan Moran plays, but it must be drums. Together they play "psychospheric goodness". Usually I don't buy the bio stuff, but I can live with the description. It doesn't mean anything, but what else to call it?

It took me a while to get into Partical And Wave, over three months, but I got around. It is a huge album. In sound and intent. An album to submerge in. To float with the side melodies that come up, disappear again, to be replaced by the next. Not so much experimental as playful. Live each song could go in any direction and not take 6, 7, 8 minutes but 20 or thirty. Close your eyes and go with the flow, writes,

Wo., but not before I mention the huge and overblown 'Avoid Avoid'. the final composition on Particle And Wave. Strap in people. This is mind blowing and yes, very, very close to my Japanese friends of Marble Sheep in 2001.

You can listen to 'Drones' here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVjjsjExknE

or buy Particle And Wave at Bol.Com

This may be cheaper though:

http://flyingout.co.nz/products/avoid-avoid-particle-wave-lp