Amplifier: Octopus

I thought I’d review something a bit unusual this time, and I came across something quite...interesting. Mancunian Alternative rock band, Amplifier, have just released their third album ‘Octopus’, and I have to say I was quite taken aback by their music having never heard of them before. It’s a fairly large album, with 16 tracks, and one song clocking in at eleven minutes, but you don’t actually realise that you've been listening to them for so long because they're so unusual.

The album opens with a purely instrumental track, it has an odd mixture of noises like footsteps, and something which I think is supposed to resemble the sound of a bird. It even has occasional moments of silence before another lot of strange noises. I do like the piano at the end as it’s a taste of normality, which is a really nice contrast and works surprisingly well. This song sets off the album, and makes you realise that you probably shouldn’t try and pigeonhole them into one particular genre or sound; this song shows that they are, if anything, unpredictable.

The ‘Minions song’ is second on the album, and it changes the tone again, it’s mellow and showcases lead singer Sel Balamir’s pretty decent voice. He resembles Dan Gillespie-Sells, lead singer of ‘The Feeling’ possibly because he also sings in a British accent. One aspect of this song I particularly like is the almost chant like chorus, we hear ‘Sing along to the Minion’s Song’ sang repetitively, making it empowering and strong. We hear some piano played throughout, which, compared to the ripping electric guitar on later tracks, is very pleasant to listen to.

Then the album slips into slightly heavy metal, which I have to say I’m not a huge fan of, so ‘The Wave’ and ‘Interglacial Spell’ weren’t to my taste, I much preferred it when they were experimenting with sounds, and not fitting into a generic style. However, they redeem themselves with some of the later tracks such as ‘Octopus’, which keeps that unusual weirdness about it, after all, there's nothing wrong with some bells and a xylophone. You are then surprised to hear acoustic guitar on the track ‘Oscar Night//Embryo’, a nice track which again shows off Balamir’s voice. As for the final track ‘Forever and More’, it feels like they’re finishing off, it’s mellowed down and comes to a slow end, possibly a bit drawn out, but nonetheless a nice way to conclude.

The length of the songs is a slight hindrance with the album, but not to the extent that it gets boring, besides, their sound is so varied that it feels as though you’re listening to a new band every other track. The album artwork for this album is very interesting, and quite beautiful actually, it reflects their music in that it’s unusual and creative. I’m really glad I stumbled across this band; I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on them from now on.