Los Angeles has often been referred to as a city of transplants and The Spider Accomplice certainly fits that term. The band’s three members are hail from elsewhere and discovered each other after relocating to the sunny climes of California in hopes of finding more opportunities in the music business. They have an instantly audible chemistry. Stripped of any storytelling trappings on their latest EP, Los Angeles: The Abduction, they still write entertaining and muscular rock songs that are focused and never waste the listener’s time. The EP also reflects their mastery of sequencing – each of the tracks seems to dovetail together in a natural unity that makes the listening experience even greater than it might have otherwise been. This is one of the best releases from late 2016 and will undoubtedly only gain more traction as the new year unfolds.
BANDCAMP: https://thespideraccomplice.bandcamp.com/album/los-angeles-the-abduction
They start with “Bromlaid”. The audience will immediately identify this as a natural opener thanks to its upward and expertly handled surge that crescendos early on into a great rock groove. VK Lynne’s voice delivers the first of six scintillating performances here and shows her tremendous range. It goes far beyond just simply possessing the needed oomph and gravitas to compete with boisterous guitars and strong drumming; she’s able to pull things in as needed and her phrasing does a tremendous job of depicting the lyrics in a 360 degree fashion. “Messy Vampire” has some decidedly dark lyrical content and the band invests it with an arrangement that burns bright from the first note. Lynne’s vocal is zesty and fuller of attitude than the opener, but the song bristles far too much to have worked as the opener. “Behold the Day” is one of the album’s more unique numbers thanks to the exceedingly stylized, but utterly catchy, guitar figure that forms the basis of the track. The guitar shifts into a much different style on the verses and the connection between lead guitarist Arno Nurmisto and drummer Justin Lee Dixon is unmistakable.
“You Still Lie” has all of the band’s strengths and trademarks working in full effect, but it is also the most obviously commercial track on Los Angeles: The Abduction. Lynne’s voice here works extremely well and one cannot help but question in what ways this song might have been drawn from real life experience; she sounds that committed to the material and in a much more visceral fashion than any of her other performances on the EP. “Going Over” has a much more studied and gently emotional approach than the earlier songs and could certainly compete with the preceding song as one of the EP’s most accessible tracks. Los Angeles: The Abduction ends with “Hollywood Hotel”. It begins with an extended spoken word “scene” welcoming a visitor to this fantastic, downtrodden scene ripped from the pages of the band’s Los Angeles experience. It is one of the EP’s most energetic tracks and rarely takes its foot off the gas. The EP is an exhilarating and entertaining musical excursion that will impress many first time listeners and make the band’s fans quite happy.
9 out of 10 stars
I-TUNES: https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=The+Spider+Accomplice+-+Los+Angeles:+The+Abduction
Joshua Stryde
