Such the almost scattergun diversity escaping Make a Scene there are times you wonder how it works with such coherent unity but it does and what is on offer is one gloriously rousing and dynamically imagination incitement for ears and emotions. The new album from US rockers Audio Poets, it is a thumping merger of pop punk, alternative rock, and unbridled rock ‘n’ roll, to try and slim it down, which leaves an increasingly greedy appetite breathless for more.
Formed in Dallas as 2014 made its goodbyes, Audio Poets quickly hit the live scene the following year, playing their first show in Buffalo with Rookie of the Year. Debut EP Colours had its successful release the following month before the quartet spent the spring of 2015 recording Make A Scene. The latter months of the year saw the album uncaged and the band relocate to Los Angeles, as well as hungrily hitting the live scene across the US. The UK and Mainland Europe are now in their live sights for 2016, the band ready to pounce on the already eager reactions to the galvanic sounds and the quickly impressing adventure of Make a Scene.
Recorded with producer Geoff Rockwell (Forever The Sickest Kids, Memphis May Fire, Crown The Empire), the band’s album swiftly hits a rousing plateau with opener The Anthem. A scuzz lined guitar makes the first invitation with its sultry hues, the lead vocals of guitarist Chris Durio quickly adding their punch to the attitude loaded proposal. As the track develops there is no escaping the potent and enjoyable Rage Against The Machine essence to the track, it coming bound in just as appealing stoner-esque grooves from the fiery guitar enterprise of Bru Whitley and Durio who create a magnetic web around the increasingly defiance loaded narrative and vocal tones.
It is a riveting and contagious start to the release but soon overshadowed by the outstanding Wake Up. Straight away that variety in sound and imagination is arousing ears and thoughts, the second song bounding around with pop punk energy and revelry whilst casting an aggressive CIV like snarl and melodic tempting. There is a touch of UK band Hawk Eyes to the romping escapade too, enslaving hooks aligned to rowdy but controlled dynamics colluding excitedly with the darker inviting prowess of bassist Mike Knight and the sinew swung beats of drummer Landon Jett.
Next up Not My Time is a triumph to match the last, this time the band exploring a My Chemical Romance meets Fall Out Boy like theatre of invention and creative mischief. Feet and hips are soon seriously involved with the more restrained, compared to its predecessors, yet feistily swinging canter of the spellbinding song and its unpredictable invention. There is a serious urge to dive right back into the track after its conclusion, though that is soon diverted by the punchy roar of Burn and after that, the album’s Marilyn Mansion scented title track. For the first, Durio mixes his strong clean tones with more rap bred vocal jabbing, though this time The Kennedy Soundtrack is a closer hint to the adventure of sound and voice on offer. As the song evolves between standing toe to toe with grouchy agitation and seducing with poetic melodic infectiousness, a touch of Lost Prophets slips into the captivation, that one more arguably familiar colour which, as within every song, simply helps flavour something openly unique. Next up Make A Scene flirts with and barges across ears with a virulence of craft and sound which again has the body and emotions subservient; electronic and industrial ingredients as powerfully persuasive as the punk infused rock ‘n’ roll at its heart.
Fiery interlude Space is more the doorway into a new turn to the album than a break, its cosmic air a progressively textured tempting for the imagination before Revolution stands tall and defiant in attitude and sound. Featuring Jay Miller of Texan band Drudge, the song is a brooding maelstrom of imposing rock ‘n ‘roll spiced with melodic hardcore imagination and an array of intriguing sonic colours and styles. It easily holds attention and enjoyment tight and leaves satisfaction full though it is maybe not as inventively bold and tenacious as earlier songs, a success found by the equally weighty emotive and tempestuous embrace of Wounded Eyes. Mixing a rich blend of varied metal infused rock flavours, the track is again an encounter fulfilling all wants and hopes if without quite breaching the same plateau the album set in place early on.
Do You Feel It (Now) brings a feistier and in some ways creatively livelier proposal with its tapestry of styles soon after, vocals and sounds from every corner of the band helping draw physical participation before closer Make It Through, escorts ears into a broader electronic landscape that sees the album go out on a potent high.
For personal tastes the album produces its richest and most ingenious mastery across the first five or so tracks, exploring more emotively shadowed and intensive depths to matching success thereafter, and from start to finish Make a Scene is one irresistible and rousing temptation from a band surely heading towards major attention.
Make a Scene is out now through most online stores.
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Pete RingMaster 07/02/2016
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