The portents were there on Echo Street, the follow-up to Amplifier’s sprawling 2011 opus The Octopus. As succinct as its predecessor was labyrinthine, it was an album that cut through the layers of the group’s sound built up over time, to hit the rockist core of the Manchester group’s sonic personality. Inspired by demo cassettes taped by front man Sel Balamir dating back to the late 90’s, Echo Streetdrew influence from the old and new, the previously-trodden and the intuitively progressive; because alongside those lost recorded relics, came a new Amplifier line-up – with former Oceansizeguitarist Steve Durose and bassist Alex ‘Magnum’ Redhead joining Balamir and drummer Matt Brobin in 2011 and 2012.
The result has been two years that have been among the most prolific in the band’s history; Echo Street was swiftly followed by the EP Sunriders, as well as live record Live In Barcelona – contrast that with the sole EP, Eternity that was released between 2006 LP Insider and the colossal The Octopus in 2011. “I think it’s just coming to realise more and more how precious time is,” says Balamir. “I want to put out at least a record every year while we still can.”
So it is that we come to Mystoria; so it is that we see what this unit of four can do as the bond between them grows ever-more established and the communication becomes transcends simple words. Marking the first time that the band have worked with Superball Music, it was recorded at the same Monnow Studios where Durose helped put downOceansize’s Frames. It’s an album that follows Echo Street in re-stoking the fire in the bellies of foundingAmplifier members Balamir and drummer Brobin. Double album The Octopus ultimately and justifiably proved a great success – garnering praise from the BBC, Drowned In Sound and Classic Prog among others, and seeing a renewed interest in the band’s live shows - but it was a draining experience; written over four years, during a period of uncertainty where they found themselves, on the one hand, without a label; and on the other in possession of an expansive ambition that could’ve tipped the wrong side of genius and into insanity.
The contrastively instant nature of Echo Streethowever is something that’s stuck with them;Mystoria can trace its beginnings to 2010 – Balamir is a relentless songwriter, always building banks of ideas to return to, pick out and sculpt - but it has been put together around a much more instantaneous manifesto-of-sorts. “We’ve managed to strike upon a new, compact, no-nonsense formula,” he agrees. “You could call it musical liposuction I suppose! We’ve really stripped away all extraneous fat from our sound and boiled everything down to the lean essence of pure rock.”
In keeping with a long-held belief by Balamir to “never repeat myself,” the record was made in a totally different way than usually accustomed. Previous processes have seen songs sketched out and then taken into the studio for recording, before being learnt live; for Mystoria the method was reversed; songs were rehearsed until grip tight and ready to go before the four even stepped in front of a studio mic. The result is a real confidence that courses through the album – and a tautness and cohesion beyond any they’ve had before. There’s also the feeling that they’re getting used to their self-imposed “compact” margins, relishing the challenge of creating the most they can within three or four minute blasts. As an opening salvo, ‘Magic Carpet’ followed by ‘Black Rainbow’ encapsulates this perfectly, condensing riff upon riff so that they twist and twine round each other as though writhing at the bottom of a snake pit.
Short by Amplifier’s standards at ten songs and 45 minutes, that doesn’t mean Mystoria is truncated – it’s just that they’ve focused their dexterities into brief bursts of genre-spinning sound. “Mystoriadoesn’t aspire to emulate any of its predecessors,”Balamir says, “but I suppose like Echo Street the approach to making it is a lot simpler - it's just about the songs, pure and simple. We’d gone back to just trying to write great songs and melodies, and that's where we’ve decided to stay.”
This means that there are songs like ‘Cat’s Cradle’, with its call and response verse and relatively distilled guitar lines, it’s among the catchiest things that the band have ever committed to record – albeit still suitably decorated with their heavy rock troupes. They’ve always retained a sense of anthemia in their music and so it proves again here, coming into focus most clearly – and unsurprisingly – on ‘Crystal Anthem,’ which finishes the record and fuses the intricate Canterbury scene prog of old, via its vocal harmonies, with the heavy space rock sound that the band have long made their own. Following ‘Crystal Mountain’ – the sole break in pace – only heightens its impact.
For the most, this is something that you could almost call Amplifier’s ‘party’ record – a feeling only consecrated when hearing Balamir describe its coming together. “An album is just a good party of like-minded friends” he enthuses. “But you can't be in a rush to make the new friends, they just pop up whenever as life brings them to you – there was a lot of shuffling around and additions and removals from the party guest list over the past 24 months.”
Those that have made it are united in a sense of shared brightness, characterised by bold licks and themes less-heavily rooted than on previous records - exemplified by the playfully titled ‘OMG’ and its subsequent body-tingling repetition and rise. “I was earnest and idealistic when I was younger but I feel more normal now and more certain that music should be about fun,” Balamir says. “So there aren’t any grand narratives – we’re not making a definitive document. It’s a summer time rock record to hopefully make people feel good when they listen to it. That’s the only intent.” An intent that’s easily surpassed by a four-piece that sound, fifteen years after their inception, like they’re just getting started again.
