Unorthodox and unique, not your average 'Noise'.
Rarely upon the music scene does an album break so many boundaries that it's impossible to place it down in one genre alone. Rarely does an album make such an impression purely for being so unique and obscure that you cannot remove its impact from your recollection. Rarely is an album so unorthodox and unique in its style in the first place, so when an album like 'Noise' comes along it is very difficult at first to know what you really make of it. All you really can decide is that you really like the music you're hearing. All this and so much more make up the first impressions given by this impressive album.
'Noise' is Archive's fourth studio album and it's incredibly difficult to explain exactly where this band are coming from, what is clear though is that 'Noise' is an emotional, colourful detonation wrapped up in the explosive time bomb of music. There are so many different styles and approaches, instruments and effects that trying to keep track of them all would simply blow your mind! With complex layering structures and repetitive rhythms and bitter lyrics, the music doses you up on a trance like journey into the divisional wasteland between techno-trance and industrial metal. It is sporadic and unorthodox yet heavily addictive, a true creative frenzy of sound, their latest distinctive anthemia sound following their recording of a soundtrack and score in Lur Besson's Michel Vaillant film. Their ground breaking epic style has already won them the hearts of the French who love them more so than the British people from whom they are originated and are increasingly gaining recognition overseas. No two tracks sound exactly the same, although they blend together many of the same instruments and techniques all the way through the album. Long term Archivists Darius and Danny tweak and refine their soundscapes and musical horizons with taste and flair, scratching up a drum loop here and there while adding dreamdust and surreal sounding string movement that soothes and calms an agitated mind. Barque sounding keyboards blend and twist textures and timbres fluidly and with great skill, creating a distinctive synthesised groove. The lyrics themselves are very poetic in their bitterness too and soar over the musical storm and chaos below, searing the soul.
The first track, aptly named 'Noise' kicks in with distorted synthesised effects as the vocalist hovers ahead with an oddly bright repetitive rhythm, despite the harmonies shining a melancholic quality over the phrase itself. A sense of urgency arrives with the introduction of acoustic guitar rhythm and the gentle distorted flow of the bass line. Surreal and warped, the different layers paint a disorderly picture of other dimensions and nostalgia within their complex walls. The heavy use of repetition that kicks in around the sixth verse is vaguely reminiscent of the riffs and styles that Oasis often enjoy to experiment with, the only difference here being that Archive do it with a real sense of direction and style. Their music doesn't share the same drone or bore the listener as Oasis' music can tend to do but rather it mesmerises and intrigues, the trance qualities really pulling through in this song.
The clear highlight of the album is the hit single 'Fuck U' that heralded great things for the new album, when the single itself was released. In this song Archive prove that screaming and heavily overdriven guitars are not always the way forward when displaying distaste or hatred. Instead, they quite clearly make their point with an almost acoustic version of music that can only be described as being innovative and borderline industrial, though it would be rather pretentious to try and pin their music down to just one music genre. The song uses a gentle electronic backdrop that sounds vaguely nostalgic; soaring back to an 80's style groove so mellow that it emphasises wholly the real contradiction within the lyrics. It would be best to describe this song as Archive's finger to the world, both in general and towards all those bands that stick to growling and grunting their way through their songs like disgruntled pigs to make their point and make their hurting known. 'Fuck U' even sounds as though it is mocking this trend within music purely through the sheer prestige sound that Archive create. Instead of screaming and wailing their woes to the world, Archive take a more creative and inventive path of sound that fully takes on the well loved vindictiveness in lyrical writing that Nine Inch Nails possess, while embracing the melancholic, sinister musical purring of Deftones. This song is a bitter lyrical pill that moves like a room of mirrors, the sound layers constantly reflecting, distorting and mutating into something else. 'Fuck U' is truly innovative and certainly the most creative example there is for expressing the raw crudeness of the feeling behind this song.
Archive do display a much more mellow, delicate and sensitive side towards the ending of the album with the tracks 'Wrong' and 'Love Song'. 'Wrong', despite only being 56 seconds long, creates just as much of an emotive impact as the longer tracks purely with the words: "I miss your love". Slow, gentle and nostalgic it runs smoothly into the melancholic organ backdrop of 'Love Song' and the two almost blend together, one song concluding the next. 'Love Song' really is what its namesake suggests it is, it is a simple yet touching and devoted song directed towards whomever may be deserving of the song. Simple synthesised effects and organs work underneath the beauty of the lyrics before shifting unexpectedly behind a wall of effects and electric guitars that create a sound similar to a breaking radio signal, creating a sinister mood to the song. This is heavily effective though because it causes the listener to listen harder in order to be able to pay attention to the lyrics which are the main focus within the track, and soon calm is restored as the track fades out with related drum fills and a gentle purring bass line.
Archive truly are an inspirational band and 'Noise' is one hell of an album with an appropriate name, though it is well structured, incredibly innovative and inspired noise. This time around it is sure to be more that just the French who fall head over heels for Archive's musical charms. An emotional, colourful explosion of well crafted, expertly written music.