Album Review: Asi Nsi Massa

Recently, a friend suggested I check out the album “Asi Nisi Masa” by The Ambassadors, a group of young rockers from New York. I hadn’t heard (or indeed, heard of) The Ambassadors beforehand. In the first listen, I was struck by the group’s versatility. The album, as well as several tracks themselves, boasts a range of heavy and tender, raucous and pensive sounds. And fortunately, the variance doesn’t cause any hardships to the eardrums. Throughout, the album is very listenable and often quite catchy. I wouldn’t be surprised if The Ambassadors end up enjoying a significant fan following.

It’s hard to pinpoint what the group’s musical influences are; surely they are as varied as its sound. I definitely think they’ve listened to a lot of grunge. Much of the album is based around heavy, muted guitar riffs, occasionally punctuated by higher, static-filled ones that diverge from the baseline in wailing tangents. The voices are at times almost whispered and at times soaring.

The songs speak of being young, but not always in the flighty sense. “Clean”, the album’s revved-up and frustrated second track is highlighted by repeated shouts of “I’m a big boy/ tangled and tortured.” In “The Beating” the lyrics dwell on the optimistic promises of childhood and the unfortunate realities that we face as we grow older. The sound is evocative of someone trapped in his own mind and body, neither of which is big enough to support his early ambitions.


“Check out this memorable track from the recently uploaded Ambassadors Album, titled “Upstate”. The lyrics (at least the first verses) tell of a homecoming – a retreat from the city to the faraway backyard we grew up in. I don’t know how metaphorical the lyrics were intended to be, but I took them at face value and found the song to be a moving tribute to that feeling of heading homeward. As someone who grew up in a rustic place far from the metropolis I live in now, the guitar’s soft and melancholy repetition evoked images of gray skies and pine-trees sliding past, seen from a car window. As the final track of the album, the song’s purpose aligns with its mood. Listening to it, we regress from the loud clashes and fusions and wails of a hectic, anxious reality into a quieter, grayer realm composed more of memory than anything else.”
Matt Gleason

Date Posted: 20 October 2008
The Odes Team.


Comments

You need to sign in to contribute to the La Crónica.

If you're new to The Odes, creating your membership is quick and easy.