Toasted Plastic - Ares Vallis (2011)

Country: USA
Genre: Math Rock, Pop
Label: Double Double Whammy
Tracks: 6

Toasted Plastic, a math-rock influenced punk band, from Ridgewood, presents something completely different for me. I’ve gone to school with all three of them for years, and know them all personally. And while you may think me biased with that fact, I’m not. I don’t need to be to love this record. Over the past two years, it has been simply incredible to watch this band grow from a two-piece with a novelty song about Saturn, to a powerful, proficient, and brilliant punk band. And the fact that I know very well the perspective where all the six songs on this new EP come from make them all the more amazing to hear. Opener “So Much Time” is perhaps the band’s finest song yet. A brilliant opening riff powers the song’s opening section, in a remarkable display of the band’s punch. This album doesn’t sound like it was made by a band of teenagers, it sounds remarkably professional, while sacrificing none of the band’s intimacy and impact. Math-rock picking and blissful chord changes alternate in the song’s second bridge. As they have always done, the band switches tempos, tone, and key effortlessly, and with a smoothness that is simply awesome. All of the other five songs have these elements but use them all differently, and with other ideas mixed in. The songs are never dull, constantly changing, stopping and starting without warning. Verses burst suddenly into huge choruses only to fall into mellow instrumental sections. And this occasionally can all happen in about thirty seconds. The vocals are often screamed, but these screams are not out of place at all. They mirror the pace and emotions of the music they narrate. And the harmonies of the shouted vocals with the vocals that are sang are done beautifully and with great timing. All eighteen minutes of the music on this EP are packed, fast, and full of energy. But they are all efficient, melodic, and catchy to balance. There isn’t a weak track to find. -Two Dudes, Two Computers

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Toasted Plastic - Ares Vallis (2011)

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