Archive of Everything is just one man, Chris Blundell. The opening salvo, '15 Million in the Bank' is a stylistic Jekyll and Hyde, the verses being a bedsit emulation of (very) early Depeche Mode or Yazoo, the choruses being an explosion of guitars over which Blundell observes the way money can change people. The quiet / loud dynamic works to good effect.
Contrasts abound across the course of the album, veering wildly from the downbeat and slightly dark 'Road to Retribution,' to the scuzzed out garage punk of 'Ode to the Beast,' a trebly riot of distorted vocals and analogue synths made to sound like guitars.
There are times when the limitations of the equipment and some strange production values really let things down. The drum machine assault that sounds like a the opening shoot-out scene in 'Hard Boiled' that dominates the title track, for example, annihilates the mood and renders what might have been an otherwise subtle and emotionally touching song borderline unlistenable. However, the same barrage of heavy percussion is perfectly suited to the next track, 'A Fucking Riot.' Originally tagged as the title track, it is, by some margin, the album's real standout, a burst of rage.
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One of the problems with writing, recording, producing and releasing everything without any external input can be an unevenness of quality, and 'Infinite Loss' definitely suffers from this. Blundell writes that 'The original idea was to try to start and finish an album within 3 weeks but that proved slightly difficult to do without it sounding unfinished.' While rough edges are often exciting, many of the songs still sound unfinished, and I can't help but think another couple of weeks - or perhaps even longer - might have proven enormously beneficial.
http://archiveofeverything.bandcamp.com/album/infinite-loss
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