Ampere

All Our Tomorrows End Today (2004)

Derrick

In days where ex-member hype reigns supreme over the music world, a band featuring the bass player from much-talked-about screamo band Orchid is bound to get some attention. Yet, however cliché it is to say, this band can certainly make it on its own without all the hype of their past experience.

All Our Tomorrows End Today is a short burst of chaotic hardcore. It's a 10", which gives little room for time in itself, but it also plays at 45 RPM, making it almost the same as a regular 7". The whole record clocks in at just barely over eleven minutes and there are eleven songs, some as short as 20-30 seconds and ranging up to two minutes. Ampere is certainly a band that cuts the proverbial fat on their songs…there's not a single note on this record that isn't absolutely essential to the song and Ampere gets their point across with incredible focus and tightness while still maintaining an uneasy, chaotic feel to their music.

The drumming is extremely impressive on this record, tight and diverse and constantly changing. It seems like every measure holds a new rhythm and this transience is paralleled and almost held in check by intricate, discordant, and yet darkly melodic guitar work. Many of these short, bursting songs even somehow find time to break for melodic interludes, pretty parts, or buildups and it makes you wonder how the hell this band has absolutely no songs over the two-minute mark and why in God's name any other band should. One of the record's greatest moments, in fact, is a wonderfully dark, slow intro to the B-side titled "The Old World Is Behind Us."

One of my favorite things about the record is that it plays out almost like a live set by the band, and you sometimes can't even tell what song is what because there is little to no space in between songs and the only dead parts are marked by light feedback; it's as if they just went in and recorded the whole thing in one session (or maybe two because there is separation between side A and B of course) and it only adds to the incredible intensity of this band's music which pulsates from every fucking note. It's no surprise how intense and chaotic this band is with a resumé that includes members of Orchid and Montcalm, and the similarities are there, but they don't dominate the music by any means. The influence of their past is only enough so that if someone told you "this band has members of Orchid and Montcalm" you'd go "ahhh yeah that makes sense…"

It also starts to make sense when you read the lyrics…very youthful and exhuberant, with a social tinge. Lines like "Young hearts don't always beat to standard verse and chorus" and "We knew that there was no future, and that was our greatest freedom" are profound enough to be honest, but not so profound as to be pretentious. Ampere runs with the lyrical spirit of Reversal Of Man, grabbing youth by the balls and demanding revolution. Their love for D.I.Y. punk ethics is enormous; in fact, the back of their lyric insert reads the following, and i'm going to close the review with this because it's a powerful message and one that I believe in strongly:

For us, being involved in punk/d.i.y. is not the means to an end, it is both the means and the end. It transcends music and extends to all areas of life. It is creating, sustaining and contributing to an alternative community that we believe in. This collaborative effort is truly remarkable to be a part of and its very existence is inspiring to all of us.