Boston’s Eroica and their debut album Hisen the Architect reminded me of a Mitch Clem comic strip that jokes about needing a dictionary to understand Bad Religion lyrics. A Wikipedia session is definitely in order to catch some of the quasi-obscure references contained in the song titles, as well as the band name itself. I’ll save you the trouble — “Eroica” is Italian for heroic. A “Lorenz Attractor” is a 3D mathematical representation, typically resembling a butterfly, of the long term behavior of a chaotic flow. “Panthalassa” is Greek for “all seas” and was the global ocean that surrounded the super-continent Pangaea a quarter billion years ago. I can’t verify the identity of Hisen, or if he truly is an architect, but can confirm that Hisen the Architect is an instrumental album of heroic proportion that should serve your record collection well.
Wanton display of trivial knowledge aside, the album’s allusions actually do seem to serve some purpose when taken in the context of the songs themselves. “The Lorenz Attractor”, easily the most math-y of the album’s six tracks, is often angular and deliberate in it’s delivery, yet maintains a smooth and graceful path (like the flight of a butterfly, no less). “Panthalassa” is as massive a song as the title implies, and seems to almost mimic the characteristics of a large body of water — ebbing and flowing between a state of turbulence and tranquility. Several of the effects used, both on guitar and bass, have a liquid like quality to them, adding to the depth of the song’s experience and atmosphere. Even the glockenspiel accents seem to dance across measures the way light shimmers over a calm, black sea.
With an overall sound in the vein of a more subdued Caspian, Eroica aren’t breaking any new ground with Hisen the Architect, nor should they be expected to. I can think of at least a dozen bands with a similar vibe, but none immediately conjure such vivid imagery and emotion as Eroica. True to their mission statement, Eroica craft progressive and dynamic songs that I would gladly employ as soundtrack while walking through my empty, late night city streets.
Genre: Instrumental/Post-Rock/Progressive
RIYL: Pillow (Belgium), Maybeshewill, Caspian
Label: Self-Released
[...] from the band, as well as digitally through the usual online outlets. Thanks to Ben Hoffman of Eroica for spreading the [...]