North Atlantic Oscillation - "Grappling Hooks" Review

Artist/ Band: North Atlantic Oscillation
Title: Grappling Hooks
Label: Kscope Records
Year of Release: 2010
Offical Artist/ Band Link

The Review:

Grappling Hooks, the debut album by North Atlantic Oscillation, fuses flawlessly elements of post-rock, synth pop and electronica. The duo responsible are Ben Martin (percussion, programming, synths) and Sam Healy (vocals, guitar, bass, saxophone). Briefly, they met in Edinburgh in 2005 and over the years developed their craft with amazing results, as heard on their debut album.

Some of the highlights of the album for me are the prog based "Hollywood Has Ended" (4:55), to the hypnotic synth pop of "Cell Count" (4:57), to synth prog sounds on "77 Hours" (5:08), to metallic pop sounding instrumental “Star Chamber” (3:14) which has an early Eno vibe . I’ll add the closing track "Ritual" (7:08), to my favorites off this album. It’s a perfect ending to a wonderful album. It starts out as a dreamy ballad then ends in a rocking fashion.

In closing, Grappling Hooks has slowly become one of my favorite debuts in 2010. At first I wasn’t sure what to think but I patiently waited and was rewarded ten fold. I would highly recommend North Atlantic Oscillation to fans of other bands on the K-Scope record label as well as Radiohead and Sigur Ros.

Reviewed by Ron Fuchs on March 25th, 2011

Tracks:

01. Marrow

02. Hollywood Has Ended

03. Cell Count

04. Some Blue Hive

05. Audioplastic

06. Ceiling Poem

07. Alexanderplatz

08. 77 Hours

09. Star Chamber

10. Drawing Maps From Memory

11. Ritual