Antistatic - Relic [CD]

Relics is the debut album of a young Danish quartet who already play with a rare and unified sense of purpose. As can be heard here, they use their carefully honed skills in the service of a collective sound that fully deserves that often-overused term, unique. What you won't hear are exactly the things that most rock bands depend upon. Andreassen and Ulrich are hyper-intellectualized exponents of what Keith Richards once called "the ancient art of weaving", bringing two-guitar interplay to new levels of complexity and sophistication. At times bassist Janus Bagh takes on the timekeeping duties of a bass drum or orchestral timpani, while Hoi's carefully tuned drums embrace melody. Ulrich has developed a very personal style of playing in which he often smacks the strings to elicit floating harmonic clouds. Andreassen, in turn, plays almost exclusively finger-style