Record review: Conductive Alliance - 'Opticks'

By Andrew Hertzberg

It’s hard to find a RIYL jumping off point with Conductive Alliance. Hints of free jazz, kraut-rock, indie-pop, art-rock, and more can be found throughout. They revealed to me last year that Bear in Heaven is one of their favorite artists. In that same interview, drummer Corey Brekher called guitarist/bassist Eli McLaughlin a “nature boy,” which may explain why most of the song titles on the bands third album relate to the natural world. That’s not to say Opticks is rolling in acoustical instruments: while they follow many rock conventions, there is great electronic influence on the album.

At times, they remind me of Broken Social Scene, but Conductive Alliance have the advantage of being more experimental, not always content to rely on obvious pop hooks to reel in the listener. Instead, each song is an exploration. Take "Deep Sea" for example: driving bass, wandering guitar, and swirling synthesizers. It reminded me of Mutations-era Beck before the anarchic saxophone rang in. The song kicks off the short album deceitfully with a slew of major chords. It’s not too much further before the darker side of the album reveals itself. On the other end of the spectrum, sonically and lyrically, is "Orbit," featuring a small string section and more ambiguous sounds to create the illusion of being sucked in by the gravity of the earth from space. The dynamic and impatient "Sand" is going to be perfect for a late night bike-ride along Lake Shore Drive once those electric summer nights hit.

Interview: Conductive Alliance

By Andrew Hertzberg

(Credit: Facebook)

I gotta say, one of the perks to blog writing is seeing a band live and being able to go up them after a show and say, “Hey, we should probably talk a bit.” So it was on a Saturday evening some nights back I was introduced to Conductive Alliance at the Subterranean. The former four piece-now-duo sets a dynamic pace akin to post rock bands, darker tones on the aural spectrum, and more than a hint of math rock influence. I had a chance to sit and snag some drinks at a Polish dive on Western Ave. with Corey and Eli and talk a little bit about the bands background, the transition after losing members and rock formations. 

Catch Conductive Alliance live at the Hideout this Sunday August 7^th ($8, 21+) when they open for Canasta and Johnny Rodgers. You can buy their EP Water Glyphs here, or check out some tracks on their Facebook page.

WCR: Give us some background on the band.

Eli: Well, the band started in 2007 when me and a good buddy of mine started playing acoustic instrumental music. From that we grew into a three piece with a percussionist. Eventually a four piece with an upright bass so there was two guitars, an upright bass and percussion, and it was all instrumental music. We released an EP as that band which was all recorded live in one day. That was sort of the art, we were all about being in the moment, improvising and having loose song structures, similar to jazz. We’d have a melody in the beginning, improv in the middle and a melody in the end and sort of bookend it that way. At a certain point we wanted to start to expand our sound, I started playing more electric guitar and we wanted a kit drummer, so we threw something up on Craigslist and it was so lucky to find Corey, you know, it’s always a crapshoot on Craigslist, but we got extremely lucky with Corey. He just moved here from DC, literally, I think I contacted him when he was loading his U-Haul to move out to Chicago from DC. So he came in and we just had good energy, he’s a great guy and an incredible musician so we started working as a four piece with Corey and continued to expand our sound to more and more electronic music, implementing synths, electric bass and now we’re pretty much an electronic band. What started as an instrumental acoustic band changed a lot.