THE OCTOPUS

Amplifier's third studio album The Octopus, from early 2011, is a superb album and a definitive moment in the band's career. The British trio have crafted a truly interesting and inventive album that gets better with every successive listening.

Split across two eight track CDs, one white on black, on black on white and coming with a thank you document providing access to a special website and the digital download of the stunning four track Fractal EP, as well as full of tiny stickers of the artwork in a unique Radiohead/Nine Inch Nails style marketing experiment, Amplifier really give thought to the delivery of the album and engaging fans imaginatively.

Initially I came across the band on a sampler cd of modern progressive rock artists, where the song 'Interstellar,' blew me away coming across as some sort of missing link between Kyuss style desert/stoner rock and King Crimson's three latest studio albums, with a Roger Waters fan on vocals.

This turned out to only be a tiny part of the band's overall style, one section of their grand and eclectic sound that mixes modern alternative rock with the progressive spirit. Tracks like 'Trading Dark Matter On The Stock Exchange,' and 'Fall Of The Empire,' are exciting and captivating, and the album as a whole is simply as marvelous as it is ambitious, full of lengthy tracks that feel equal parts spacey and grungey.

The album flows brilliantly from beginning to end and is best absorbed of many repeated listens as a complete piece. No tracks feel out of place or weak, nothing brings the general level of quality down for even a minute.

I also really enjoy the production of this record, the mix and the treatment of vocals and background keys are really well handled and make the album sound important and grand without being either over-polished or intentionally retro.

Overall, The Octopus is one of the best and most interesting albums you are likely to hear this year and I strongly recommend it to anyone who likes any sort of intelligent rock music, prog or otherwise.