Asva – Futurists Against The Ocean (CD)

Asva has fifty minutes of music split up amongst four tracks. This allows for the band to set their own pace in creating a very distinctive sound. For a while during “Kill the Dog…”, I was expecting a whole-scale move to a Misfits-like slam against the wall (think “Forbidden Zone”). The music is well-done, if not a little plodding, with a definite structure in place to continue to drag listeners along. Keep in mind, however that this is not music to fit on during a party but rather another disc to stick in a changer and slap a pair of headphones to. Still, the band does not seem to continually move down the field, as there are some sections during tracks like “Kill the Dog…” where the band feels is if they are figuratively spinning their wheels (listen to the 7-9 minute mark for an example). The atmosphere is created at the onset of the track, but Asva, in Mortiis-like fashion, does not run with it beyond the occasional inclusion of a new sound here and there.

The good thing about “Futurists Against The Ocean” is the fact that each of the tracks do take a different tack than the rest of the fare on the CD, even if there is a lot of on-track repetition. Thus, tracks like “Kill the Dog…” and “Zaum; Beyonsense” have little in common besides an insistence on the drone-rock that Asva is about. The more electronic sound of “Zaum” provides Asva more avenues of expression, and by and large the track shows that. More often than not, these avenues are actually taken and provide listeners with a new-found burst of energy, especially after the somewhat enervating “Kill the Dog”. The shorter length of “Zaum” may also be another reason why the track feels so different; nearly three minutes separate it and the first track on “Futurists Against The Ocean”.

“Fortune” has two distinct paths of noise for listeners to take; these two paths make the track into a “choose your own adventure” that propels the disc into the bombastic “By the Well of Living and Seeing”, a true-rock epic if there ever was one. Asva has created a drone-rock disc that will not bore listeners to tears, and this means a bold new path for the genre. Couple in an impressive ear for arrangements and talent, and Asva succeeds where oh so many have failed.

Top Track: By the Well of Living and Seeing

Rating: 7.1/10

Asva – Futurists Against The Ocean / 2005 Web of Mimicry / 4 Tracks / http://www.webofmimicry.com / Reviewed 08 May 2005