Ammi is one of those rare bands who doesn't let their talent cloud everything they do. While they could definitely resort to stupid noodling or pretentious showmanship, talent has found its place in the creativity and variety the band manages to pull off, especially in an album that seems to have an interesting progression hiding behind the band's indie rock/post-hardcore orchestrations.

Laodicea is indeed a diverse record. While the second track, "Born," could best be described as a mix between the gentle emotions of Mineral and the swirling, semi-electronic atmospherics of [insert newest hip electro indie-pop outfit] with a simple mix of emotions and bits of organic qualities, "So Close," its followup, gives off much more of a radio rock quality to the voice of the lead vocalist at first - maybe even with a charming snarl á la Kurt Cobain - only to let the song's composition drop into a spastically jazzy rock feel.

"Blue Screen Brain" really seems to kickstart the darker portion of the record. Interlaced, distorted voices crumple under the singer's, and a lot of the optimism in his voice from the previous tracks has really seemed to die. The next song, "Faux," features the fastest tempo Laodicea has to offer, with vocals snidely crooned over chords No Knife would like back, please. Screamed backups help a chorus of line of "So! Faux! Life! Wins! / I said I wouldn't care / inside of my head / well I'm sorry so..." become pretty damned infectious, too. The closer, "Nature Of Apathy," has some strummed angularity and flat-out anguished yells on top.

The band's sound really can't be justified in any one description. I really don't believe the above gives such justice even after straining to compare, and just believing Laodicea has the ability to dodge most that are sure to come their way seems a feat in itself. Regardless, the EP has a rare, progressive cohesion to it, which, again, makes it interesting itself. While I feel like there's plenty parts that could work to whelm me better, there's a lot of cool qualities I'm liking, and I figure with all the overanalyzing they've pulled out of me already, an expansion on the complete package is inevitable.

MP3
Faux
STREAM
Blue Screen Brain