Splendid Magazine reviews The Octopus Project: Identification Parade

What do you get when you lock three bored Texans in a room full of broken-down musical gear? Probably something rather closely resembling the ramshackle orchestrations and limb-flailing ambience of Identification Parade. In the grand scheme of things, this trio of Austin-based scraptronic rockers sits somewhere between Gary Numan and the Art of Noise -- an electronic group that acts like a rock band, or perhaps a rock band that likes to think of itself as an electronic act. Whatever the case may be, the Octopus Project's sound is a beguiling concoction that avoids becoming stale despite the fact that the group uses recycled motifs throughout the disc. Tinny, '80s-style electro-breaks form the album's rhythmic foundation; they are the pulsing underpinning of every song, from the first notes of "What They Found" to the last exciting moments of "Hypnopaedia". However, for all of its reliance upon broken electronics, the disc's most exciting moments occur when the band are caught in full rocking splay, the densely packed, guitar-toting "Righteous Ape and Bird" being the most ornery of the bunch. While their sound isn't as technically precise as the Pulsars or as downright downtrodden as Joy Division, the Octopus Project make a good case for plugging in, smashing the shit out of your instruments and rocking out like there's no tomorrow.