Rosemead, California is where these guys are from, formed in the summer of 1995 with the current line-up finalized in 1998. One of these members ran into Ataris lead singer Kris Roe and handed him a demo, which lead to the signing of this band on Kung Fu and this full-length produced by no other than Trever Keith of Face To Face.

Let me get rid of all of your doubts: Audio Karate is the revelation of 2002 for me thusfar. Throwing in 2 riffy guitars that spit out loops and hooks as if they are there for grabs, a voice that is a bit more gruffy than the average pop-punk band and an over-all sound that just brightens up your day with joyful and pretty uptempo choruses. No, it's not new, why should it, this is Kung Fu greatness all the way. This label really should apply for a patent on this sound. MI6 and Ataris is what first comes to mind because of the nice catchy harmonies, but the hand of Trever Keith is surely to be noticed as well with this perfectly layered harder guitar-virtuosity that really amazes ("T-San").

Some people take the word "emo" in mouth when they talk about this band, but I never had the feeling this has anything to do with emo as I experience it. Maybe the boy-girl lyrics are there, but this is damn fastpaced for the biggest part of the album. Extraordinary is also that these songs last a bit longer than the average in these kind of releases, and although I prefer short songs in general, these guys manage to prolongue these songs only with pouring some additional magical stuff out of these guitars that keeps your attention all through the disc.

Highlights were there in abundance, but "Rosemead", "Halfway Decent" and "Senior Year" are simply out of the league. Hey, this was easy to write.