Will the future of the human race eventually come to man versus machine? It seems every hotshot Hollywood sci-fi writer prophesizes this. And, hey, after scientists recently unveiled robots capable of walking on varying terrain, I was a tad spooked. So how dangerous are machines in music? Are IDM sweethearts like the Postal Service and the Notwist in fact mankind's first casualties in this apocalyptic war? Okay, let's not kid ourselves, the stakes in music aren't that high. Yet, throughout One Ten Hundred Thousand Million, the second full-length from Austin instrumental trio the Octopus Project, the ongoing tension between acoustic and electronic instruments is pervasive. Guitars strain to be heard over effects-laden keyboards, basslines desperately pulse before chunky synth-lines supplant them, and at the center of this struggle is percussionist Tito Miranda.
Miranda plays the Dr. Octopus-- hee-hee-- to these unruly machines, simultaneously providing the songs with a strong rhythmic backbone while trying to maintain control of the music's electronic parts. Rather than using a drum machine, the band frequently opts to let Miranda pound away, even on the album's most rhythmically furious numbers. Opener "Exit Counselor" is a cyborg of a song composed of Miranda's measly human arms flailing to keep pace with bionic, stop-start synth blasts. Even when backing a guitar riff on "Six Feet Up", Miranda busts out thirty-second note fills, and even quicker crashes, relentlessly. As a result, these up-tempo rockers exude a plethora of energy, albeit with a fatiguing amount of fury.
Fortunately, most of the tracks don't inflict this level of strain on the listener. "Responsible Stu" and "Malaria Codes" are therapeutic laptop pop ballads amidst the industrial clangor of the album. The former especially soothes with a dulcet keyboard line so tender it almost breathes above an electronic beat as harmless as a crinkling candy wrapper. The true highlights, though, occur in the band's most balanced numbers. "Tuxedo Hat" bobs on a bassline innocent enough to be from a Mega Man stage while a modulated keyboard and fuzzed up guitar somehow harmonize with each other. With its atmospheric and strangely sad reverb-guitar/synthesizer interplay, "The Adjustor", the prize track here, showcases the ultimate potential of this electronic/acoustic union. Each instrument shares at least a piece of the simple melody before willingly handing it off to the next, and Miranda doesn't have to fracture his wrists to provide the rhythm. In other words, make more Bicentennial Mans than Terminators, and everyone's happy.
