Auxes - Sunshine

Artist: Auxes

Album: Sunshine

Label: Lovitt Records

Post-hardcore, post-punk, and experimental are all descriptions of genres that I have a hard time accepting.  They're vague, unspecific, and to make matters worse often go hand in hand.  Will it sound coherent? disjointed? or provide a rich, flowing soundscape?  Whatever the case, you never really know what you're getting yourself until that first listen.  Sometimes they can be an indecipherable mess appreciable only by the genre's most die hard enthusiasts, but other times they can sound like Auxes' debut full length, Sunshine - a structurally complex journey full of unpredictable paths.

Sunshine first lured me in because of the deceptively upbeat, borderline hardcore-punk vocals utilized by lead vocalist and lyricist Lenny.  Put crudely, Lenny's voice sounds like a higher pitched version of a stock east coast hardcore singer, but one who is constantly gargling varying quantities of water.  The effect sounds familiar but unique, and least noticeable during the first three songs.  The first track, "Burning Brighter," like most of their songs, has an instant appeal but never quite transforms into an overly catchy tune.  In some ways it's like the band wrote a pop song and intensionally played it in various conflicting keys.  In the next songs, "The Things Lovers Do" and "Sunshine," Lenny's shrill voice sounds reminiscent of early Arcade Fire.

But after the forth track, a quiet melodic hardcore inspired instrumental (aptly named "instrumental"), Lenny's voice sounds more obscure with each following track.  But Auxes make the transmissions subtly, and the vocally unique elements always sound appropriately distorted in conjunction with each track's level of experimentation.  For example, in the almost catchy "Radio! Radio!" Lenny has a distinct backing chorus of himself singing in parallel while singing in a slightly higher pitch, but because of the song's more conventional sound his vocals seldom stray from their sound introduced in "Burning Brighter."  But in more obscure tracks, like the slow "Greeting Card Perfume" or "Happydays," Lenny employs a sluggish, quiet but shrill and heavily distorted wail that fittingly matches the tracks crawling pace and seldom changing backing blanket noise.  During the more chaotic arrangements, like "Lookalive," Lenny's voice often matches the unpredictable chords and varying drumbeats by disjointedly singing in slight contrast to the overarching melody.

Auxes have an interesting take on the more experimental side of their genre (whatever that really is).  Auxes match their post-punk, post-hardcore, experimental classification by allowing a fitting level of ambiguity within their tracks.  Some sound coherent, just escaping sing along potential, while others ditch convention entirely, fragilely held together by the odd constancy of their weirdness.  In any case, Sunshine is an oddly listenable piece that those curious about "post-(insert ambiguous term here)" may find worth investigating.