WATER, IT FEELS LIKE IT'S GROWING

This album has been my most pleasant musical surprise of 2023 for certain and perhaps for several years. I was simply working through a list of new prog releases, specifically hitting my favorite genres. Atsuko Chiba is labeled as post-rock / math rock. Although those influences are present in the music, the band covers a very broad sonic territory that I think would best be described as modern psychedelic prog. And while other neo-psychedelic acts like King Gizzard and Tame Impala also paint with a very large palette, I find the work of those bands sometimes a bit disjointed. Not so here. There are certainly surprises - great surprises, but it all coheres into a fresh sound that maintained my interest for every moment of the short album.

My best description of the sound would be to cross post-rock with early Mars Volta (who the band cites as an influence). There are dreamy couch lock tunes (Seeds, Sunbath) and mildly chaotic, full of attitude tracks (So Much For, Link). Even during the atmospheric passages, the band brings in new, unexpected elements that continually keep the listener guessing. There are odd time signatures, plenty of different keyboard sounds, and guitar delay used in a myriad of ways. Vocals sometimes serves as an ethereal layer and other times almost rant as a lead element. Similarly, the range of emotions that this music evokes is large - including a truly frightening climax on the final title song.

At 36 minutes, the album does something no album has done for me in ages - left me wanting more. This is my #1 album of 2023 so far and will be difficult to knock from the perch.

I would recommend this album to a wide variety of audiences but for anyone who enjoy psych-prog, I rank this as the best in years.

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