There should be an award for the type of marketing that this album utilizes. Few album titles correspond so well with their artwork to actually give the potential buyer more than a clue, but an actual visual depiction of sound (black metal excluded). Filled with gently rolling, yet minimal rhythms and tinkling instrumentation, the digipack cover featuring distant industrial structures reflecting off of a rippling body of water leads one to a singular conclusion. You got it--ambient post-rock. To exploit yet another clich?, they are Midwesterners as well, albeit from Wisconsin. For many people this will immediately trigger a buzzer. An ever-growing backlash to the genre continues to grow as more records harping on past glories continue to saturate independent record bins nationwide. However, fans would claim that all genres are at least somewhat bounded, functioning to provide the listener with a set of reasonable expectations and guaranteeing a maximum of satisfaction upon purchase. I cannot disagree exactly, but I get the feeling that I?ve heard this album before and it might already be in my collection.

To return to my original idea, the sounds on this disc certainly trace landscapes, in particular the open desolation of great American highways. As a very recent transplant to the Midwest, the ebbing repetitions evoke the immense plains flickering by the car window at dusk. Dreary, sleepy, and at times, alien. In other words, they got that right. ?Ascension And? most succeeds in holding my attention, as Casio tones give way to sawing violin and birdcall synths against a backing pulse of bells and cymbal. While the mixture of organic and synthetic sounds seems to be their only defining characteristic from a limited palette, here the simple melody dominates, breaking the oh-so-tired Chicago post-rock sounds with a negation of the soft-loud-soft rule set. Instead we are left with perhaps a nod to a comatose Steve Reich (also reappearing on the equally memorable ?Alpine Low?). On other tracks, such as the opener, ?Euclid,? heavily chorused and delayed guitar tones mine smooth jazz for their structure and melodies--pleasant, but still reminds me of the dentist?s chair. Sure, I enjoy Pat Metheny, but without the chops and theoretical foundations, its just saccharine elevator music. Overall, scope and scale seem to be problematic. Benign themes spiral into infinity on most tracks where brevity could have been an asset. Potential abounds, but like a number of debut releases, the overall execution disappoints.

Combining two overused aesthetics that rely on precision and innovation to generate their acclaim, you have to work overtime to not become background music. I?ll probably use this to drown out the people next door someday.

(Note: If you happen to enjoy ?study music? for mental processes, ratchet up the rating another point. I originally wanted to give this record a lower rating, but ?Ascension And? and ?Alpine Low? provide too many stellar moments and almost completely prop up the tracks.) 6/10 -- Brandon Miller (29 August, 2007)