Aderbat
Rabbits and Rocks
2005

It’s a really great feeling when completely by chance, you stumble onto a band as incredible as Aderbat.

Rabbits and Rocks has a very complete feel to it – vocalist Matt Taylor has a softly hollow sandpaper-y voice that effortlessly adapts itself to the constantly shifting music, and the actual instrumentation of the album is at times breathtaking in its complexity.

Tracks like “Spinning,” “Come Love,” and “Many Ways” each have a very full sound, due to Aderbat’s emphasis on the importance of each instrument – where the guitar takes center stage, percussionist Todd Schied provides a splintered, rhythmic drumbeat, forcing the listener to realize the full musical spectrum of the song. It’s quite clear that each instrument in Aderbat’s musical puzzle is equally important as the next, and the sound is all the richer for it.

The lyrics on Rabbits are largely concerned with love in all its stages, and the album does an excellent job of evoking a passionately wistful atmosphere. Aderbat achieve equal success when approaching the subject on a small scale (“Your hair / I find it in my mouth again”) or a grand one (“I’m the moon and / You’re the ocean”).

At the risk of sounding derivative, I simply cannot say enough good things about this CD. Rabbits and Rocks is an album that requires multiple listenings in order to fully realize all its brilliance, understated grandeur and subtlety.

-- Jessica Netishen, 03/28/05

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