New Electric

New Electric are a clangorous, rocking, fuzzed out instrumental act featuring members of De La Hoya (you know, that band some of Marathon used to be in), Nakatomi Plaza (you know, that building from "Die Hard"), and Rolo Tomase (do you know? 'Cause I don’t). While all four members of the band studied jazz at some point in time, you will only find scant traces of it here. Instead, New Electric runs noise rock head on into some straightforward heavy rock and roll. When the smoke clears, what is left is a mess of brash guitar slinging that can be just as pensive as it is abrasive. New Electric can come out screeching, pounding, and ripping solos that shock the senses, or they can kick back and lay down some melodic movements and airy space.

The EP opens with “Surf,” a driving, guitars-turned-to-eleven number that never lets up over the course of three minutes. New Electric construct a wall of noise, but each brick can be distinguished. So while one guitar is feeding back, and the other shredding, you can still pick up on a bass lead.

After “Surf,” the band assert that they are not a one-trick pony by busting out the atmospheric and beautifully melodic “Don’t Send Me Home.” The song opens with one guitar laying down an almost synth-like backing, while the bass takes care of some melody and the other guitar stabs in and out with some jagged chords. From there the band alternate back and forth between the song’s main riff (a high-pitched pull off deal), some dips into ambient and layered guitar, and a couple quick flourishes of the heavier rock from the EP’s opener. The song may be nearly six minutes long, but you won’t notice it thanks to plenty of variation.

“Bananarchy” and “Circus” close out the EP and bring the band’s two styles together as they shift between some heavy riffing and atmospheric guitar runs that put the fret board to work. The only problem is when a distracting cock rock vibe springs up during some of the harmonizing and solos.

Unlike a lot of instrumental acts, New Electric know when to an end a song. They also don’t rely on repetition very often, but instead continue to chart new courses away from a song’s initial starting point. Still, if you don’t dig instrumental music they aren’t doing much to draw in the "vocals necessary" crowd.