Nothing But Change

Album Review

Nothing But Change, the second album from New York's the Octagon, finds the group embracing a spare, clean, live sound that captures the emphatic emotional push of the songs while leaving some breathing room between the players. Recorded in a mere three days, Nothing But Change plays like an effort to document the way this band sounds in performance rather than create a monolithic studio sound, and the results not only succeed admirably, they suit the tenor of these songs very well indeed. While the band can let loose with some post-hardcore rave-up on tunes like "Carlito's Way," and display a righteous but articulate rage on "Macaca," most of the time the Octagon show how to be passionate and thoughtful without sounding pretentious, and many of the tunes suggests a looser, more playful fusion of Television's guitar interplay and the Minutemen's sharply skeletal melodic fire. The Octagon's approach isn't as showy as either of those groups, and neither Johnny Mays nor Zachary Mexico can handle guitar with the virtuosity of D. Boon, Tom Verlaine, or Richard Lloyd, but it's hard not to imagine they haven't learned a few things from listening to them, and bassist the Bunny and drummer Will Glass are a compelling, efficient rhythm section. For its surface simplicity, there's a lot going on in Nothing But Change, and the Octagon's music reveals new layers each time you spin this disc, making this one album that deserves steady rotation on your personal play list.