Band Name: Atharva
Album Name: Ivy Day in the Committee Room
Best Element: Like nothing you’ve ever heard.
Genre: Industrial/Ambient
Website: www.atharva.net
Label Name: Torched Records (www.torched.net)
Band E-mail: joshua@atharva.net
Honestly, it is very hard to find something to say about Atharva because their unique style prevents direct comparisons to any style of music or artist. A very preliminary impression points to old Nine Inch Nails or Skinny Puppy, but at the same time Atharva is very different from both of these artists.
This undertaking sounds very much like a movie soundtrack, as Joshua, the man behind the music, states in the “sounds like” section of Atharva’s My Space profile (www.myspace.com/atharva). As I listened, I could very much imagine hearing this as the soundtrack to a late night party scene in a movie. Most of what we have here is a blend of random and abstract instrumentation with the occasional distorted vocal.
Although I don’t much care for electronic music, this, for some strange reason, held my interest, if for no other reason than I was waiting to find out what new sound was just waiting around the bend. It is trancy and psychedelic; dark, yet soothing. As he says in the bio on Atharva’s myspace page, he really has thrown away everything that makes sense, yet come up with something unique and rather enjoyable in its place.
Andrea Goodwin
(starryblueskye24@aol.com)