My first discovery of the band Imperative Reaction was hearing the song “Giving in to the change” from a metropolis music sampler. It quickly became a favorite song of mine (and still is). This lead me to their album “redemption” which was their most recent release at the time. Redemption was everything I love about electronic music. It seemed to stand apart from many of their other contemporaries in that it was dynamic, emotive and the songs were strong. My friend from Seattle, Jen, is a big IR fan and turned me onto their previous album “ruined”. I also loved the blend of synthpop and harsher industrial music that resonates through their sound. I love music that is dynamic and can go from quiet and soft to in-your-face loud.
It wasn’t long before I got to see IR Live when they opened for Covenant during the Skyshaper tour at El Corozan in Seattle. They are one of the best live electronic bands I’ve ever seen. I also had the pleasure with hanging out with the band later at another popular Seattle club. Was quite entertaining to watch Ted Phelps (vocalist) arm wrestle Eskil (of Covenant) as we cheered them on.
“As We Fall” came out shortly thereafter and it probably holds the record for longest stay in my car’s CD player. “As we fall” should be classified as a synth lover’s must have. “as we fall” leaned even more to the hookier synthpop edge but never cliched. Every song was great…there is no filler.
“Minus All”
When the artwork for “minus all” was posted on myspace with the announcement of a new IR release in October, I was thrilled.
This will probably break some “play” records on my ipod. Where “as we fall” leaned more to the synthpop side, “minus all” heads the other direction. Still very melodic and emotive, but much more aggressive. They make bands like my chemical romance sound like elevator music and there isn’t one discernible guitar sound in the album. Stand out tracks for me are “Drown”, “minus all” and “Your Remain”. But again there is no filler. To my fellow rivet heads- run don’t walk to your nearest music source and buy “Minus All”.
