Norwegian band AMAZING MACHINE was formed back in 2008, at first as a duo consisting of Bjørn-Roger Reinfjell and Hans-Marius Øverland, but later settling as a trio with the addition of Torkil Rødvand. “Room of Pointing Figures” is their first recording, and was released as a digital EP in the spring of 2014.
When reading up on the stated inspirations for this band, a lot of names are listed there that you can’t truly hear in the material they explore. Which isn’t at all an uncommon I guess, but if you look them up on social media you can safely disregard a few of the artists the band have chosen to namedrop themselves, and rather hone in on their self-described genre, with an emphasis on progressive rock, alternative and post-rock. Those three genre descriptions pretty much summarize what this band is all about as they appear on this EP.
Plucked and frail, echoing guitar details are given a lot of space in the dreamladen, melancholic landscapes explored, and liberal use of ethereal textured sounds and nervous fluttering light toned guitar details adds a certain emphasis on the band’s fascination for post-rock. They do mix it up a bit though, with harder edged, angst-filled darker guitars and a firm bass and drum support that does give their compositions more of an indie or alternative sheen. Careful and often frail lead vocals, at times with a more distinct and highly emotional delivery, adds dreamladen, sleepy and distanced vocals as well as angst and intensity in just about equal measures.
I applaud Amazing Machine for managing to balance their compositions between the ethereal, frail and also majestic beauty of post rock on one hand and the more angst-ridden alternative type progressive rock on the other, and the manner in which they do explore these landscapes can be fairly transfixing at best and always intriguing for sure. As far as debut EPs goes this is a high quality one, and one I’d recommend to those who are just as mesmerized by artists such as Gazpacho and Radiohead as they are by bands exploring what I might describe as classic post rock.
My rating: 90/100
