This review was commissioned. However, it bears no weight on the score or decision. All reviews are written from an unbiased standpoint.
The couple of bits of press that I’ve seen discussing Last Wars aside from our own lost records describe how dark and brooding the artist is. And while I do agree with that to a point, I find myself also pointing out how the music wouldn’t be so out of place in the soundtrack of a Tron flick, or the hacking maneuvers found in video games such as Prey or System Shock. Minimal wave flirting between genres including synthpop and post-punk but never so dark as it feels as if the mind has been shut off and there’s a whirling vortex of bleakness. No, I see this as the cold fabrication of machinery, digital ethos at its finest permeating the human wall.
The title track begins the album and a chorus of raw synths and a smooth bass line wake us up from a cold sleep before we enter a digital world of whispered, almost ghost-like vocals and odd electronic rhythms that belong to a different era. ‘Attrition’ is a swift and fast-paced track that echo my initial thoughts of the album; a trip through cyberspace, information overload, a non-stop stream of data. ‘Ages’ breaks the breakneck pace and we’re left with a warped and wobbled track with decent bass guitar strings and a psychedelic atmosphere.
‘Sorrow’ betrays most everything you thought about the album leading up to now diving straight into post-punk territory. Kickdrums and smooth backing electronics a la xylophone contribute to this philosophy, and the vocals are rather smooth. Fuzzier electronics come in later creating what I would describe as a two-part track. The second half, however, isn’t as good, and comes off as the soundtrack to a VHS player breaking down.
‘Crystalline’ goes back to post-punk styles mixed with a good bit of funk with ‘Reaction’ maintaining style but increasing the pace, even if a few of the sharper guitar notes sound off from the main beat. There’s not much I can say about ‘Give’ that I haven’t said about the other tracks on the album; maybe it’s excess fat that could’ve been cut and I feel a bit the same for ‘Last City’.
Oh, right, and before I forget, “Escaper” is built as a continuous album which means there really aren’t any cuts from song-to-song. An album’s man album, I suppose.
“Escaper” is a pretty damned good album even if there are some minor bumps in the road. Sure, I felt the last two songs weren’t as unique in identity as I’d like them to be, but I still enjoyed them nonetheless. Some of the guitar notes, specifically the higher pitched ones, throughout the album felt off to me, but it wasn’t enough to ruin the songs. And going in and coming out the album I can say that I really don’t think there’s anything else like this on the market currently. It’s refreshing and good, able to play with lo-fi sounds without ever coming off as low effort.
