The thin line between abrasion and accessibility is a hard one to straddle for any band utilizing industrial electronic sounds. Seattle duo Ever So Android pull that balance off big-time on their debut full-length Disconnect, an epic rock record whose industrial backbone never comes at the expense of its soul.
The band’s two members, vocalist Hope Simpson and multi-instrumentalist Drew Murray, generate one unholy and ravishing racket. It’s temptingly easy to compare ‘em to early Nine Inch Nails—Murray’s clattering, throbbing, grinding mix of electronic and natural percussion definitely plants some of its roots in Trent Reznor’s rhythmic approach—but once Murray kicks the guitars in and Simpson opens her mouth, Ever So Android becomes an earthier animal.
The synthetic back-masked whooshes that form the intro to Disconnect’s first track, “Moment,” rapidly give way to a concise guitar riff that alternately follows and jabs at the drums, and Simpson’s drama-drenched windstorm of a voice counters the spiky directness with a tribal trill that’s disarming in its primal sexuality.
The rest of Disconnect’s tracks rarely let up, with Murray’s rhythms bashing and burbling while his axe kicks up mutant variations on swaggering hard rock (“Cradle Robbers”), blues stomping (“Leash”), greasy Zeppelin mega-riffage (“Don’t I Have a Say”), and driving pogo-ready new wave (“Learn to Crawl”). Simpson, meantime, fronts the songs with the kind of pipes that send music scribes burrowing through their verbal file cabinets for superlatives. Her voice soars over, growls at, and encircles the tunes with astonishing power and total abandon, without ever losing velocity or veering off-pitch. When most modern rock fuses electronics with organic urgency, the results usually reflect artists struggling to maintain their humanity in the face of the machinery: Disconnect is the exhilarating sound of two human beings (three, if you count veteran producer Bill Rieflin and his punchy, expansive production) resolutely making technology their bitch.
I suppose the relentlessness with which Ever So Android pile-drives their music could be perceived as a liability in some corners: Even “Dirty Fingers,” with its skittering introductory dance shuffle and some of Simpson’s most nuanced vocals, shifts into high tribal-goth gear within twenty seconds. But in a world where electronic music is dominated by ice queens and incalculably arch hipsters, Ever So Android’s in-your-face approach feels refreshingly visceral and immediate. Rage on, guys.
Ever So Android play their CD release party for Disconnect tonight, Friday August 7, at the Crocodile Cafe. Show begins at 9:00 p.m., withTen Miles Wide (formerly The Mothership), The Mama Rags, and the Hollers sharing the bill. Tickets available at thecrocodile.com, or at the door.
