pampelmoose Dave Allen of Gang of Four’s Music and Media Blog — music . media . web. culture

If you’ve followed the progression of Luke Wyland’s ever-morphing musical project known as AU you will recognize almost all the song titles on this new release. Apart from the propulsive opener “Ida Walked Away”, the rest of the tracks on this appropriately titled EP (four if you buy just the limited edition 10″, five if you get the digital released) are radically reinterpreted renditions of songs from AU’s previous album efforts: 2008’s Verbs and and their 2007 self-titled debut. What purpose this disc serves is to document both the musical relationship between Wyland and percussionist Dana Valatka and the new direction that the group’s sound has taken as a result. The first AU releases saw the subtle slide of Wyland from enigmatic, ambient work into fuller more colorful compositions (a shift represented well by each disc’s cover art: AU being an abstract painting done mostly in black on a white background; Verbs a blast of circular shapes in pink, yellow and blue), Versions is a true game changer for this still young band. The skeletons of the originals are still there, but they’ve been given a leaner, sturdier musculature.

The core changes to these songs seem to have been spurred on by Valatka’s stunning drumming. His fluid, rolling work adds a careening and propulsive element to these songs that were only hinted at in Wyland’s original vision. In its original permutation, “Are Animals” was pushed forward by hand clapping, thumb piano and the energy of a massive chorale of vocalists. Here, the emphasis is on a circus-like organ run overlaid with Valatka’s dazzling array of cymbal hits and cowbell and rimshots. Were it not for the interludes of yelping vocals and intricate overdubbed vocals, it would make a perfect soundtrack to a madcap cartoon or silent film. Elsewhere, the elegiac “Death” is turned from its funereal beginnings into a track that relishes in sheets of noise and the pinging slide of an electric guitar. The title subject matter is now removed from its sorrowful beginnings into an almost primal rage against the dying of the light.

While Versions may make you scatter back to the band’s other albums to play a compare/contrast game with each reinterpreted song, the main goal should simply be to excite the listener to not only see this duo in action in a live setting, but also to get you trembling with anticipation for AU’s next album of originals.