The Most Underrated Band on the Planet: A Retrospective
Part 2: Everyone seems so sad, or is it me?
It’s astonishing how much progress The Brave Little Abacus made going into their sophomore release, especially considering that it came out the same year as their demo. The Brave Little Abacus really found themselves on the split - the songs are tighter, the vocals are more prominent, the guitar playing is killer, and all of this is done without sacrificing the playful exuberance of the demo. The Matt Aspinwall side is not outdone by TBLA.
I know a lot of Brave Little Abacus fans that haven’t heard the Matt Aspinwall side, which is a real shame because its bizarre blend of electronic instrumentation and waaayyy off key vocals
makes for a distinctive and charming listen. To my knowledge, Matt Aspinwall is simply the solo
project of TBLA keyboardist Zach Onett, featuring backup vocals by Adam. The stripped back, traditional song structures and music are a nice contrast to TBLA’s side which is arguably the
band’s most progressive output. The lyrics are more traditionally emo than TBLA - mostly about lost love, depression, and being alone, but the close to cliche lyrics are charming thanks to Zach
and Adam’s sloppy yet poetic delivery. The little flourishes like the pitch shifting and cut up vocals of track three and the Spongebob and Office Space samples emulate the wackier, pleasurable aspect of TBLA’s sound. The Matt Aspinwall side is seriously overlooked and every bit deserving to be paired with The Brave Little Abacus.
The Brave Little Abacus’ side is their most sprawling progressive complete with labyrinthian song structures and all but one of the tracks cross the five-minute mark. There’s some serious
arpeggio wizardry on "Untitled," and legit shredding in "Good Atmosphere," but it’s never flashy, and Adam’s restraint is the most impressive aspect of his guitar playing. The production is much
clearer which helps foster TBLA’s atmospheric quality. The lyrics are less abstract and much stronger than on the demo; Untitled is the band’s strongest lyrically up to this point, “Is this disease kicking in or are the headphones letting me know who it is that I am Checkpoint’s blocked by the sea. Everyone seems so sad, or is it me? Or is it the small huntress with the kite because I don’t know what to think of all the consumers inside her small figurative heart. Would somebody else hold the rifle for once? is this disease kicking in or are the headphones letting me know who it is that I am? Checkpoint’s blocked by the sea. Everyone seems so sad, or is it me?” Even the weirdness is amped up, like the chopped up yelping over a fucking steel drum in "Good Atmosphere." Both sides work on their own, and as complements to each other, which is all you could ask for out of a split. In less than a year The Brave Little Abacus seemed to reach peak form, but there are still progressions to be made, and their best work still to come.
