AMPLIFIER: The Octopus (ALTERNATIVE ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

"The Octopus is not a thing... it's a kind of process." This enigmatic sentence opens this new and long journey of the Mancunians, an allegorical prologue to a conceptual and complex work lasting more than two hours. Succeeding an "Insider", "The Octopus" is the meticulous but gargantuan work of a trio of laboratory technicians, and deployed over more than three years of research.

Building its vast still with a rough alternative rock, Amplifier circulates a whole bunch of harsh electrical liquids heated by Chris Sheldon's undistilled raw production (Oceansize, Foo Fighter, Pixies,...). The result is a heavy sound without frills and sticky packaging.

But due to a strong attachment to its English origins and close friends of Oceansize, the sounds and formats of this octopus paving stone are also affected by the progressive, nervous and sometimes unbridled rock of their counterparts in Manchester (although it is more a question of the wiser period of "Effloresce"). Mike Vennart will also come to add his vocal signature to some parts of the opus.

Amplifying, like a peacock, also knows how to parade by taking pride in more post-rock nuances. Subtilities for which they sometimes allow themselves long developments ("Trading Dark Matter On The Stock Exchange" very jazzy in its middle) but never useless. When the wind rises, the granular gusts of the guitars transform the octopus into a pachyderm, weighing down the monster and adorning themselves with certain attitudes of their buddy Oceansize ("The Octopus", "Fall Of The Empire",...), but also with Tool (for the warning shots of snoring bass) or even Mastodon for the suffocated and rocky mix.

A certain continuity is achieved in all cases on this double album, apparently imposed format, more by technical than artistic considerations given that there is no sudden break between the two albums. Like many others before them, the double-album format also has a little something "cult" about it, like the result of a monumental work, the quintessence of a creative mind. "The Wall", the "White Album" or "Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness" were among them.

"The Octopus" has undeniable writing qualities. Some of the tracks are simply brilliant ("Interstellar", the most humble "Oscar Night // Embryo" for example) while other passages may seem relatively less salient but in the end, the image that we retain, despite the greyish atmosphere that emerges from this architectural building, has the sumptuous colours of the major works. Amplifier probably gave birth to his masterpiece, if he had to have one... - Official website

AMPLIFIER

THE OCTOPUS

AUTOPRODUCTION

ALTERNATIVE ROCK