Upon first listen to Auganic’s third album Distant Echoes and Close Encounters, their sound can be hard to pin down but in the best possible way. There’s a strong electronic element on this album, but what form that takes in each track is difficult to say. Generally it comes out in the midst of a number of other elements such as experimental guitar rock, shoegazey, Hum-like vocals and a jazzy aesthetic. The electronic part of each song it generally the ambient binder for the rest of these styles, and the overall effect is emotive and a bit surreal.
Unequivocally, each track on Distant Echoes and Close Encounters has an electronic intro. Both the album opener “Signs” and its closer “Close Encounters,” have quite spacey and experimental intros similar to Tangerine Dream or Philip Glass, whereas on “Levitate” it’s a bit more emo, sort of conjuring Linkin Park and the like. Still other tracks like “Levitate” and “Porcelain” open with more ambient tones.
As the guitars come in on each track they start of weaving in with the synths with sort of a Ratatat vibe, but eventually the guitars take over and take on more of a grunge of shoegaze feel as the electronic bits take a backseat. Michael Kossov’s vocals also will remind audiences of shoegaze or more ambient rock. His voice timbre and the keys he works in are similar to Jared Leto from 30 Seconds to Mars or Chino from Deftones. Both these bands also incorporate elements of electronica into their work, so it’s no surprise that there would be some similarities here.
The Aurganic project sees two high school friends, Kossov and producer Leo Pisaq coming together to bring both analog rock and ambient electronic elements in some of the best fusion music the rock or electronic worlds have seen thus far. Their music is clean, evocative and esoteric. It will be interesting to see where they take their sound from Distant Echoes and Close Encounters.
Distant Echoes and Close Encounters is out now and available to stream on Aurganic’s Soundcloud. Purchase links to a number of platforms including Amazon, iTunes and Reverbnation are listed on Soundcloud as well.
