And Then There Were None brings a message to club music
Posted by The Skyliner on April 1st, 2009Tommy Lee
Staff Writer
Salem, New Hampshire’s electronica five piece outfit And Then There Were None was formed in 2003. Since then they caught the eye of large independent label, Tooth and Nail, home to the likes of mewithoutYou, The Almost, and Emery. And Then There Were None mixes the dance beats of club music with the synthesizers of electronica, and the speed of punk-rock.
ATTWN released their Tooth and Nail debut Who Speaks for Planet Earth on Feb. 24. With ATTWN’s release came a deluge of U.S. touring.
The funny thing about And Then There Were None’s sound is that when the group started in 2003 they played much more intense music, along the lines of metalcore.
“Eventually I ran out of ideas for writing metal music, and began to write what came more naturally. To me, dance music is positive, and still incredibly emotionally based. There are no rules or norms and this allowed me more creative freedom in the writing process. I finally feel as though ATTWN has found its own unique sound,” frontman Matt Rhoades said.
Of course, ATTWN won’t be coming to a dance club near you. The band still tours the same venues they did when the group started. The drastic change in their sound may have been a good idea. The countless number of metalcore bands in the genre leaves most on a level of mediocrity with very few of the bands being original. At least ATTWN’s hybrid sound of punk and electronica creates an original and fresh sound in independent music.
Who Speaks for Planet Earth is twelve tracks of fun music. Whether you are driving in your car, cleaning your room, or waking up in the morning, ATTWN will have you grooving in whatever you do. From the cacophonic electronic fill beats on “Reinventing Robert Cohn” to the hasty pace of “The Atmosphere,” the album is like caffeine, with rarely a dull moment.
Even though the band has two guitarists, they are hard to hear through the liberally applied synthesizer. Not to say they are bad, but the vocals are what one would expect from this fusion of genres, high pitched and not much else. The drums throughout the album sound overproduced to the point of them being done by a computer and not a percussionist. Of course, like the vocals, this is something you would expect from a band of this sound.
Who Speaks for Planet Earth is good album for what it is, and for the most part showcases the talent of And Then There Were None. The issue here is you cannot tell what is actually being played by the band and what could be just an overproduced album. If nothing else, Who Speaks for Planet Earth is an all out fun album to listen to.
I really like this CD. Good Release.
This is such a great album. Great style of music..very energetic for sure!