THE OCTOPUS PROJECT (AUSTIN/USA)
Graveface Records 2006
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The Octopus Project - Music Is Happiness

With their second album, One Ten Hundred Thousand Million, The Octopus Project has added a few more crayons to the fire: it's the same band that produced 2002's Identification Parade -- beat machines and keyboards stacked against drum kits and guitars -- but the quiet parts are quieter and prettier ("Bruise," "Lots More Stairs"), and the loud parts are way fucking louder ("Exit Counselor," "Six Feet Up").

Toto, Josh, and Yvonne have been at this for a while now, accompanied lately by Brandon Durham in the guitarist's seat. In the two years between records they've taken the barely controlled chaos of their live show (often augmented with masks, balloons and bizarre party favors) from coast to coast, playing many hundreds of shows and being lucky enough to share the stage with folks like Four Tet, The Shins, Deerhoof, The Dismemberment Plan, and Trail of Dead.

When it came time to record, the band had a clear idea of what they wanted - a full-color studio concoction injected with the energy of a club full of people dancing to some crazy noise. They got some help from friends who played instruments (horns & strings) and recorded them in nice studios. The band then extensively reworked the tunes, adding such necessary features as the sound of a five-story concrete stairwell, an ususpecting New Orleans marching band, guitars through megaphones and lots of tamborines.

In 2002, Identification Parade received a very complimentary review from a Greek website which, poorly translated, says a lot about the high standards the band had in mind for this new record:

"Their music is not distant and colourless, but heat enriched with 32-roasts colours. Absolutely fresh, most creative extremists. I have the impression that next "kombote'hnima" post rock it will not come from the collective of Godspeed or from the turtles of John McEntire, but from their Octopus Project (with my particular statement, I am ready -- almost motionless -- in order to it falls fire me it burns...)."

The Octopus Project feels that they've met the challenge and delivered their "kombote'hnima" (whatever that is), and they submit for your approval One Ten Hundred Thousand Million.