From Amazon.co.uk
Know by Heart is an apt title for the fourth album by the American Analog Set. Often practitioners of the art of "futuristic" music usually make one crucial mistake: in their quest to replicate the synthetic sheen of a dark, mechanical tomorrow, they often end up completely obliterating every trace of humanity. Fortunately, Texan new-wave motorik rockers the American Analog Set are wise to this: the sleeve to
Know by Heart--two guitar leads, loosely coiled into a heart-shape--smartly points out that there's a very human warmth in the depths of this circuitry. As it happens, for the most part,
Know by Heart is a pretty relaxed take on rock experimentalism: AAF seem more intrigued in the prospect of crafting pretty nuggets of tune out of the most atypical building blocks--drone, repetition, feedback and a studied and a largely successful restraint. The studied motorik of "Like Foxes Through Fences" recalls--and betters--the design of Brit experimentalists
Appliance, while the beautiful, but uncharacteristically named "Punk as Fuck" crafts a post-rock love song out of chiming guitars and velvety instrumental harmonies. The American Analog Set succeed because they put the songs--and a whole lotta love--right at the centre of their design. It's far from the stuff of a dark future, but frankly, more bands should follow their lead. --
Louis Pattison