ATTEMPT | "AGAINST THE LIGHT" EP | DESPERATE SPIRITS | OCT. 27TH, 2017

Bio:

“Against The Light” (Desperate Spirits, Oct. 27th) is the new four-song EP from ATTEMPT, the Lexington, Kentucky-based recording project of Trevor Tremaine, best-known and most-adored as the drummer of the enduring noise band Hair Police.

Beyond that introduction, there ain’t no use trying to describe ATTEMPT any better than what Elephant 6 co-founder / The Apples in Stereo front man, Robert Schneider has to say.

Dig this:

“ATTEMPT is like listening into the future of underground music: 10cc plus Steely Dan playing jazz fusion on a peyote trip.”

If you’re not pressing play by now, God help you.

Tremaine also speaks for himself, explaining the EP’s nearly-ten minute long title track, saying, “The conceit of ‘Against The Light’ is jaywalking as a metonym for taking a selfish and irresponsible and irrational risk, less for personal gain than to sort of course-correct reality, an act which this song seems to celebrate.”

Remember, “jazz fusion on a peyote trip.”

You’ll need an emergency room after hearing the guitar solo that begins at six minutes in.

The song is Tremaine’s first truly collaborative ATTEMPT piece on tape.

“It was built around my vocal harmonies,” Tremaine explains. “(Drummer) Dave Farris supplied the layers of Martin Denny (the “father of exotica”) clatter, and Robert Beatty (Tremaine’s co-Hair Police man) detonated the Lydian sinewave fireworks in the coda. On the final version, I patched a take of the full-band live jam from whence this melody sprung.”

And then Tremaine goes in on Schneider in the ATTEMPT descriptor face-off.

Maybe he takes it?

Dig this, part two:

“Brian Wilson via Psychic TV, Meet The Residents, The Congos, and Harry Partch. It’s a séance of esoteric, aesthetic ghosts.”

It’s kind of funny, but at the end of the day, it’s DIY godfather R. Stevie Moore who actually beats everyone at the buzzer with a take on ATTEMPT that speaks to the “Against The Light” EP’s earlier cuts, particularly opener “Cancellations and Delays,” which would be at home on any dance floor on Earth (or other planets!)

“Heavy rotation on my player, a new fave. Delighted with all the ideas, melodies and adventurous chords.”

And really, isn’t that all you need to know?

“Against The Light,” the latest EP from ATTEMPT arrives on Oct. 27th via Desperate Spirits.