Hailing from London, Athabasca deal in airy, atmospheric post-rock with a strong electronic component. Beyond this, detail is sparse, meaning that the band’s latest effort, Hardscapes stands on the strength of its artwork (Gordan Loncar) and the ten tracks on offer. This is very much for the best as, shorn of an image or biography on which to rely, all attention is focused on a set of songs that, while subtle, prove to be very special indeed.
Making little concession to the mainstream, Hardscapes opens with Untermensch, a synth-led piece that makes good use of a shimmering arpeggio over a hazy drone to set the tone of the record. A lengthy piece (it sits just shy of seven minutes), it builds steadily in a manner reminiscent of the electronic scores of artists such as David Arnold, each element slotting into place just in time for the track to reach its conclusion. A Leftfield vibe emerges on the similarly lengthy World On A Wire, although the reverb-washed guitars have more in common with Mogwai or My Bloody Valentine, and the result is a gorgeous piece of ambient music that slowly works its way into the consciousness. A more immediate piece, M99 touches on Mike Oldfield with its creepy lead line, although the tense, moody bass is somewhat darker in tone. It gives way to the suspense-filled Sans Domicile, which recalls early eighties soundtracks built around the Fairlight CMI (also a common plaything of Peter Gabriel). The first half of the album concludes with a track that casts a nod to the anti-Globalisation protests of 1999, with The Battle of Seattle. A dynamic piece, it manages to be haunting and captivating in equal measure, the deft use of ambient effects adding to a sense of unease that lies at the heart of the track.
Opening the second half of the album, Demoralise / Denigrate / Immiserate is a short piece of awkward electronica with its roots in the unstable genius of Aphex Twin. At just shy of three-minutes, it’s more of a palette cleanser after the lengthy tracks that preceded it, and it’s followed by the more sedate Rigaer 94, something of an ambient trip down the rabbit hole. The closest thing the album has to a single, No Logo is an accessible slab of beat-driven ambient. Admittedly it’s not quite danceable (unless there’s a club where Mandrax is mandatory), but it’s definitely got a strong [pulse to it, not to mention a seriously groovy bassline. It’s followed by the John Carpenter-esque rampage of #OccupyBufferZ, a short, snappy piece that paves the way for Urban Prairies to bring things to a close on a more reflective note.
Hardscapes is one of those rare albums that is difficult to define. It offers up reference points over the course of its run time – The Orb, Aphex Twin, Leftfield and Mogwai all figure – but ultimately it is its own work. Ambient to the point of giving the listener a contact high, this may not be something to have in the player whilst you operate heavy machinery, but it is an imaginative, frequently hypnotic body of work that is well worth exploring. 8.5/10
