Back in 2005, then trio The Octopus Project released their second record One Ten Hundred Thousand Million to critical acclaim. It saw the Austin based group reach ears around the world, including my own, thanks in part to support from blogs like Pitchfork. Since then, the “indietronica” group have expanded to a four piece and released three more albums, including last year’s Fever Forms.
In spite of coming to Austin many times over the past few years, I’d never managed to catch the group live – until now. Long overdue, I was lucky enough to close out my first night of SXSW Music for 2014 with an hour long set from the locals at venue The North Door.
With an impressive visual show behind them and Yvonne Lambert up front on the keys and the tambourine, the group set into a set of high paced, energetic instrumental music. There was the occasional appearance of a theremin, and all in all the music made you want to equal parts dance and rock out, with tracks often exploding in a climax of noise. Trippy, psychedelic, colourful… they are all words you could use to describe their sound, the performance and indeed the visuals that accompanied it.
There were sometimes vocals, such as the “oh no”s in “Death Graduates”, off their latest album. But these were distorted and much like in other instrumental groups like Sigur Ros, the vocals are there as an instrument into themselves, rather than for lyrics to garner some meaning or greater purpose. Well, one assumes, anyway. They did say one of their tracks was about “balls”, which seemingly went into a 1980’s video game world. Musically, anyway.
There is indeed a fascinating diversity to their music in that way. As they switched and changed their instruments, every song brought with it something new, and every track felt like a unique experience. And it never stopped being an enjoyable one. The Octopus Project are one of those bands you all should know about, but probably don’t. So take this as an opportunity to check them out. You won’t regret it.
