Null_Objct - Null_Objct

The Next Big Thing In Creepy Atmospheric Music? Gary Herbert could well be it.

Null_Objct is the trading name of Gary Herbert, a guitarist from LA. This EP, a sampler for the riches that'll be lobbing up when his debut full-length album arrives, is a great introduction to the rooted-in-retro-sound feel he specialises in - it's a warm, if somewhat unstructured (and prone to restating ideas, compulsively) affair that refers to the techno and rock worlds without seeming like an obvious bastard project.

Retinal Scan starts out with an almost-Harrisonesque series of Indian-influenced riffs before being overwhelmed by a sea of programmed beats and washes and fantastic guitar lines. The next track, Artifact, begins with the sounds of signal erosion before kicking the song into the world of the paranoid big-beat, doubletime kicking and what sounds like an octopus-bashed drumkit. These two songs pretty much describe the world Null_Objct inhabits, give or take a few variations.

Nitrous and Hiding Bridges are perhaps the two most fully-realized tracks on this EP. They're full of driving-through-underpasses-at-night menace, all reflective windscreens, rolling, terrible bass and a palpable feeling of lurking 9mms. It is, it goes without saying, good.

There's a feeling of good, heavy song construction to this disc, reminiscent of latter-day Cure tunes: a solid bassline - admittedly, they could use a bit more prominence in the mix - overlaid with multitracked guitars, keys and some fantastic programming work. If anything, Null_Objct suffers from an embarrassment of riches: there's a lot going on here, but a sense of cohesion is occasionally lost. If the arsekicking Barry Adamson feel that's lurking underneath some of these tracks can be coaxed into the light, and tempered with the occasional suckerpunched emotional key-changes that are drizzled on the disc, Null_Objct could well prove to be the Next Big Thing In Creepy Atmospheric Music. Certainly, there's smooth paranoia enough here to pull it off and launch Herbert into major-league scoring - it just needs a little more direction.

This article originally appeared on splendidezine.com.

Automatic Slim - Daisy Cutter

A band caught in the crossfire when stompboxes attack!

The world of the three-piece is especially crowded these days, and Automatic Slim seem keen to distance themselves from the rest by dint of guitarist/vocalist Gelu Sulugiuc's somewhat overwhelming use of the flanger and phaser parts of the stompbox arsenal. Turn it off! There's a feel of The Cure, say, amongst it all, but what's notable from the disc's outset is the lack of professionalism. Or, rather, inexperience in knob-twiddling. Which is a shame, as there's the possibility of good stuff here; when the band are working, they are pretty good.

Unfortunately, there seems to be very little in the way of self-criticism in the Automatic Slim camp. Kick The Habit is perhaps the greatest example of this; it's a tune that goes in several directions at once without really knowing where it wants to end up. There's the strummed acoustic intro, the chugga-progression that seems stolen from a million fifteen year-olds, the not-quite-certain time-changes and sloppy playing - you name it. It's something that, if worked on, would improve Daisy Cutter's reach - and dropping the Hendrix and Porno For Pyros covers would be a good idea, too.

Overall, Sulugiuc's vocals are too high in the mix. Far too high. There's not much of a sense of confidence there, and each crack, pop, and bump in the road is painfully audible. It sounds lo-fi and bedroomy, but it also summons images of wannabe rockstars expressing their angst by the Peavey practice amp's warming transistorised glow.

A bit of finesse would work wonders with Automatic Slim's music - there's the occasional piece of good raw material here, but it's lost in the blat of an ill-mixed sound that brings to mind school gyms more than arenas of rabid fans.

This article originally appeared on splendidezine.com.