With the amount of electronic gadgetry stacked across the cozy Garrison stage at set-time, it was hardly surprising that the four intriguing Icelandic sound wizards of Apparat Organ Quartet took a little while longer setting up their confounding collection of sonic tools. However, the precious minutes remaining in the troupe's delayed set would prove more than enough to satisfy the sense of anticipation that filled the room.
Opening their brash showing with a smothering wall of synth buzz, the band's drummer quickly set a blazing pace with a thumping backbeat as the group's three synthmen oscillated between spacey melodies and a four-part, bottom-heavy sonic thud. Brief moments of more restrained musical levity were readily broken by a dizzying array of scurrying, multilayered keys and thundering rhythms emanating untraceably from the band's spectrum of electronic tools.
Cool, synthesized vocals — sometimes sung, other times played — added a singular human touch to the expansive soundscape, but moments of surprisingly endearing warmth, like that of the opening moments of the crew's final tune, always gave way to the pulse and the whirling, interwoven tones of these four sons of Kraftwerk.
It was all quite an impressive display; the only wish is that we could have seen more of it.
Opening their brash showing with a smothering wall of synth buzz, the band's drummer quickly set a blazing pace with a thumping backbeat as the group's three synthmen oscillated between spacey melodies and a four-part, bottom-heavy sonic thud. Brief moments of more restrained musical levity were readily broken by a dizzying array of scurrying, multilayered keys and thundering rhythms emanating untraceably from the band's spectrum of electronic tools.
Cool, synthesized vocals — sometimes sung, other times played — added a singular human touch to the expansive soundscape, but moments of surprisingly endearing warmth, like that of the opening moments of the crew's final tune, always gave way to the pulse and the whirling, interwoven tones of these four sons of Kraftwerk.
It was all quite an impressive display; the only wish is that we could have seen more of it.
