Don’t let the rather dull name put you off: Quarter Acre Lifestyle know about dynamics, and on their third album, (the rather unimaginatively titled) ‘3’, they use the standard elements of rock music to create a set that sounds crisp and vibrant and – dare I say it – edgy. While in the last year I’ve been exposed to a wealth of instrumental post-rock and a fair quantity of prog-metal (much of which has been of an impressive standard, it must be said), I can’t say I’ve heard anything that takes the core elements of Nine Inch Nails and 90s Depeche Mode as the basis for an instrumental recording.
What this means is that on ‘3’, QAL produce a rock sound, complete with gritty guitars, that’s underpinned by a taut, almost mechanised rhythm section and welded together with a production that’s overtly digital. The first track, ‘Man is Robot’ draws on DM’s ‘Barrel of a Gum’ and welds throbbing, grimy synths, pumping bass and overdriven guitars to a stomping beat. Industrial rhythms and techno / electro elements merge with kicking rock to forge a sound that’s hard-edged yet danceable, and cerebral at the same time. More often than not, I find myself being reminded of The Young Gods while listening to ‘3’ – think ‘Super Ready / Fragmente’ - and you get an idea of the way QAL marry grainy, overloading analogue and acoustic sounds with digital clinicality to produce something explosive.
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The compositions lend themselves particularly well to this approach, with a leaning toward the driving and the uptempo, with occasional bursts of volume, not to mension colossal percussion, as exemplified on the darkwave-prog mini-epic ‘Muriwai’.
No two ways about it, ‘3’ is a powerful album that kicks ass in ways your average instrumental work could never imagine.
Quarter Acre Lifestyle Online
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