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Aa (say "BIG A little a") has been honing its unique blend of intensely stylized DIY maximalism in the lofts and clubs of New York since 2002. The component parts - three drumsets, a tangle of synthesizers and samplers, dudes shouting - are simple enough. Yet the experience is an utterly unique and giddily engaging gasp of fresh air, a densely imagined, obsessively structured, hyperactive shoplifting spree through the polyrhythmic post-post-punk digital jungle-mall. Earth-shakingly organic beats,squawking, alien samples and group chant-hooks crash headfirst into blissed-out electronic rave-ups - everybody moves, everybody sweats. And yeah, they do their own fucking light show.
"Not just noise, not just drums, but something that reaches ecstatic, bombastic heights"
-- Pitchfork
"Propelled by three drummers (four counting John Atkinson, who flails his maracas like a chimp on crack), Aa consistently wows loft parties with a sonic battery of driving beats, ethereal electronics, and samples of sirens and elephant cries. There are lyrics in all that yelling, though we still can't tell what they say."
-- New York Magazine (Top Five)
"Passionately clamorous local experimenters."
-- New York Times
"Aa (BIG A little a) has a very swank one-sided LP out on Narnack. It has a very beautiful way of shifting its center in unexpected ways. The single side of music is a fat tableau of the kindsa sounds that young people should be making and enjoying in bistros from here to Kalamazoo. Here they club out bite-sized hunks of neo-no, new-wave-electro-murk, disco-noise readymades, French duck calls and a buncha other stuff. And it sounds quite pleasing!"
-- Thurston Moore, Arthur Magazine
"Aa takes home the mindfuck award. Like a rabid Animal Collective, their upcoming debut CD/DVD, gAame, is a rambunctious din of electronics, furious beats, and synth all climaxing in primal shouts of ecstasy."
-- Austin Chronicle
"Heavily skewed pop, though the definition of pop must be stretched thin to apply. Art-core krunk?"
-- Flavorpill
"For fans of: Gameboy, Michael J Fox, rubbing your eyes real hard, jazz cigarettes."
-- The Fader Blog
"An art-punk party-starting re-invention of the hippie drum circle."
-- Village Voice
"An urban dance-noise nightmare!"
-- CMJ Monthly
"Utilizing three drum kits and electronically treated moans and chants, Aa weave weird spells and conjure up eerie atmospheres. They are a very hot and wet handful of indescribability indeed."
-- The Stranger(Seattle, WA)
"The band's early spirit has evolved and coalesced: gAame, its second album, reflects the uncommon power of its hypnotic percussive attack. In mostly one- to three-minute bursts of tribal pounding and chanting, adorned with pinwheeling noises, Big A little a establishes itself as a Savage Republic for our times. An accompanying DVD contains extensive live footage and a homemade video for each of the album's 13 songs, many resembling deleted scenes from a Jack Smith film. Hyperactive creativity goes a long way indeed."
-- TimeOut New York
"Call the Brooklyn-based quintet what they call their debut:Big A little a, wherein every member doubles as a drummer and manipulator of electronic components, all shouting or murmering amid their spacey clamor. After a few years of throwing hissy fits in barely legal loft spaces deep in industrial wastelands, playing places like Chicken Hut Loft and Happy Birthday Hideout on bills with TV on the Radio, Mindflayer, and Japanther, Aa grew up enough to get beyond the boroughs. They'll twitch and glitch enough to get the school dance sweaty."
-- Seattle Weekly
"Unpredictable bombast. You'll never see the same Aa show twice!"
-- Portland Mercury
"Art-rock, experimental electronica, whatever you call it the music of Aa is sure to challenge if not delight"
-- AM New York
courtney, Jul 20, 2007:
thanks for the add! God bless....