#otis infrastructure

Otis Infrastructure @ WMUC

ALBUM REVIEW: Otis Infrastructure - Minimalism

After last year’s Dreaming of Stucco, New York’s Dean Essner/Otis Infrastructure has taken a step and a half in a new direction with Minimalism, his product of summer ’14. While the album retains the half-submerged, extended vocabulary of Dreaming of Stucco, the ideas are more spread, creating a more diverse and honed sound. Essner’s keyboard magic has also progressed, comprising a much stronger element of the album. Most importantly, he’s loosened his grip on the reins of tight control, allowing chaos and free time to seep into a greater portion of the songs here. It gives the listener the impression that what we hear is only most of each piece, as though the rest of it is hidden underwater, like icebergs floating by, with Essner comfortably seated atop one, playing guitar and singing at us as we drift. It’s an entrancing album that deserves a listen with full attention.

The title track of Minimalism opens with a looping drumbeat that begins simply, but then dissolves into echoes as synth chords hold it all together. Essner’s voice comes in, at once fragile and determined, in a bleak poem about cutting down. “I am a greenhouse gas,” he shrugs. The synths build until they carry the vocals underneath, at once cutting into the next track.

“Raft” sounds like ticking machinery, drums speeding up over the heartbeat bassline, hypnotic. Contemplative synths balance out the frenetic hi-hat, reminiscent of the textured landscapes of Pink Floyd circa “Time.” A swarm of guitar lines appear next, building over the previous layer, creating a musical carousel with each part operating separately, but combining to fascinating effect. Lyrically, “Raft” captures a spirit of sudden awareness and isolation in the summertime. After the lyrical section, the waves of instruments build and break down, naturally but noticeably. It’s deliberate construction and deconstruction of walls of sound. I can’t think of anything that sounds quite like it. The song ends with the ever-present bassline, unchanging.

The opening synth that announces “Almonds” fades into a moody, swirling guitar progression, in a three-fourths time letter from inside a hidden crawlspace. “Don’t use me for my warmth,” Essner warns the listener, “it isn’t free.” It’s musically full, but balanced well, never overpowering. “Almonds” combines big ideas with specifically personal touches, and with the vaulting choral harmonies, adds up to a definite album highlight.

The acoustic “Rain” starts with a beautiful overlay of guitars and ringing keys, and could easily stand alone as an instrumental passage. Once the drums and vocals come in, it grows into a spacey request for safety and temperature. It feels as wide open as the countryside Essner inhabits, removed from the compression of the city and music made in it. The light droplets of keyboard are rain, and the howling wind sounds behind it makes it a perfectly chilling ballad, just major-keyed enough to prevent it from sinking under the waterline of sadness. It fades out perfectly, like a summer storm.

The suspended chords to “Down” are classic Otis. It’s smooth and easy to listen to, blooming into big harmonies over repeating synth plucks, with some of the best lyrics on the record. It’s a relatively short and simple song, but one of the strongest, evoking Alex G in its direct transparency.

“Peanuts” starts off strong and stays that way. The drums are a driving force behind a palpably faster and more compressed sort of song. It’s both wordy and self-aware, lyrics tinged with tongue-in-cheek snide regarding the ridiculous nature of language. It takes a darker shift with a shrill, Jonny Greenwood-esque guitar line, driving it into an anxious third gear. Essner raves into the mic in the frantic climax, possibly the strongest moment on the album, and then cuts off as startlingly as it began.

The album closes with “Standby,” a daydream of bittersweet melodies and aching synth waves that cut right to the listener’s heart. The waves of noise wash over like water, with the steady drums moving hypnotically, creating a trance effect that never stops being pristine, like walking across an endless field of ice. The song eventually dissolves into a wall of sound, barely organized, reflecting the album opener, and closes with simple keys playing out the melody. Then it’s over, and you’re left in the loudest silence you may have ever experienced.

LOCAL ANESTHETIC: Otis Infrastructure 

Amid the crowded indie music scene around Washington, DC, a handful of bands stand out for putting their individual spin on the area’s spreading style. One of those standout bands is Otis Infrastructure, the project of College Park’s Dean Essner. Otis connects with its listeners, employing quiet-loud-quiet-loud dynamics reminiscent of the Pixies and emotional, ethereal lyrics that one imagines could be written on the back of a parking ticket or on the side of a flowerpot.

The band is a revolving cast of members centered around Essner, combining math-tinged guitar and full bass propelled by an excellent drummer who knows exactly what each song needs. Much of the band’s strength lies in its knowledge of when to be small. They aren’t trying to be loud and demanding – they channel emotional purity and anxious energy in perfectly measured doses.

In “Losing All The Color In My Face,” Essner breathes his lines about frustration over a building melody, before letting the song explode into a shrill, full-force blast of emotion. “No Fun” is more straightforward rock and roll that is still tinged with unease, and finds fascinating power in its simplicity. Otis Infrastructure sometimes leans towards dreamy soundscapes, in beautiful, half-hypnotic songs like “Dreaming of Stucco”, the title track from their most recent album. Perhaps the most memorable is “Sleepwalk With Me”, a perfectly-written and charmingly damaged ballad that is impossible to forget or dislike.

Essner does his listeners a service by recording his music in the highest quality he can. He doesn’t subscribe to the newfound cult of lo-fi that is spreading over the east coast; taking inspiration from artists such as Alex G, he crafts a dreamy, melancholic iteration of bedroom pop without leaning on the ‘warmth’ of a shoddy recording style. He’s doing his own thing, it sounds good, and it feels good.

Otis Infrastructure is releasing a full-length this summer called Solipsism through Essner’s own local label Tricot Records. You can listen to two tracks from the album, “Raft” and “Almonds”, at their Bandcamp (along with their previous releases).

-Alana Pedalino

I was 45 minutes late for the concert celebrating indie rock bands Otis Infrastructure and Ratburn’s recently released split album on Friday, April 11, but that didn’t matter. The first of three opening bands, garage rock quartet BINKY, hadn’t even finished setting up yet in WMUC’s live room, where the university’s FCC-licensed radio station hosts in-studios. Nevertheless, the room was packed with dozens of 20-somethings and teenagers excitedly anticipating the music to come.

And even when BINKY messed up the lyrics to its first song, a cover of Vampire Weekend’s “Giving Up the Gun,” the audience barely flinched.

WMUC is used to this crowd. Many of the students present were either DJs at the station or familiar with the in-studio M.O. from past concerts.

“They come more for the atmosphere of the station,” said Dean Essner, the frontman of Otis Infrastructure who planned the concert.

Affectionately known as “Third Rails” to regulars, these live in-studios are products of “Third Rail Radio,” a weekly FM broadcast that features bands performing at in-studios and interviews them, often in real time. Co-live music directors and junior English majors Dean Essner and Michael Lawrence host the show and book its acts. Essner describes “Third Rail Radio” as “the show of all shows” at WMUC.

“If there was a show that represented the station on the whole, I feel like that’s what ‘Third Rail Radio’ stands for,” said Essner.

Though Friday’s concert was not aired live, it was recorded, edited and played during the official time slot of “Third Rail Radio,” Sundays from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. This meant that the opener after BINKY, junior journalism major Dan Singer, could be as silly as he wanted to be in in his tongue-in-cheek set, Dan Singer Songwriter.

Self-described as “ranging from The Beach Boys to Weird Al Yankovic,” Singer sang songs about being in love, getting 300 likes on a Facebook status and chicken nuggets. The audience smiled and sang along for a good portion his set – many had seen him perform on “Third Rail Radio” before.

“[‘Third Rail Radio’] functions as a space where local bands and music nerds can get together and enjoy each other's company,” Singer wrote in an email.  “I love the enthusiasm the folks involved with Third Rail bring to the show, and it makes for a great experience as both a performer and an audience member.”

After Singer’s well-received performance, DJs welcomed the third opener, Essner’s former band Sunset Theme. Sunset Theme featured alumnus Alex Mamunes, who released the Otis Infrastructure-Ratburn collaborative “split” album on his College Park-based record label, Tricot Records. During his performance, Mamunes channeled progressive-rock and dedicated his songs to the audience.

It was the perfect segue into Ratburn, the penultimate act of the night. The Weezer-vibe and abrasive sound won over the audience. A few superfans mouthed every lyric they sang, including Essner, who covered Ratburn’s song “Stupid” on the split.

“[When I first heard Ratburn play,] It didn’t occur to me at first how much I liked them, but as the set went on . . . . I got really, really into it,” said Essner.

Eventually, the two bands would collaborate on the split released that night.

“We’ve been good musical friends over time,” he said.

 Finally, Otis Infrastructure took the stage and provided a mellow closing to the night. As Essner’s ambient guitar and spoken vocals floated over the audience, a wave of silence washed over them. Otis Infrastructure would keep their attention until the very end, particularly with the abstract track “Dreaming of Stucco,” a mostly instrumental piece that made me yearn for summer.

At the end of the concert, the audience lingered to meet the bands and help bring their equipment to their cars, chatting happily and smiling. It was obvious that the event was another “Third Rail Radio” success for WMUC. 

“Third Rail is like the backbone of WMUC, and if you were to touch it or change it or try to get rid of it, it might be detrimental to the station,” said Lawrence. “It’s an institution. It’s just part of what the station is.”