Over the course of their four-song EP, Faces in the Architecture, Building the State show that they can fearlessly adapt Appleseed Cast’s penchant for beautiful, billowing instrumentation and light, sung vocals partially relegated to the background.

Faces in the Architecture consistently works through its 19-minute running time because Building the State, well, build a cascading, mesmerizing atmosphere that entrances the listener with enough understated changes to retain their attention throughout. Justin Tzuanos sings in three of the four songs, but he appears often in those three, his perfectly flat delivery actually a great fit for everything. In the one instrumental, “Untitled II,” the band give way to dancing, slowly bouncing guitar chords that bring to mind American Football in the beginning before the mood changes to a downbeat, heartfelt flutter of post-rock meandering.

Building the State definitely produce one of the surprise efforts of the year with Faces in the Architecture. Updates on mid-`90s indie-emo stuff are few and far between, but Building the State are responsible for a notable one.

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Untitled IV
Open Hands to the Sky