Ativin

Ativin
Summing the Approach (1998)
Secretly Canadian
Bloomington, IN



Originally I intended to write about German Water, the near perfect full-length and big brother to this remarkable EP. But I found Summing the Approach late last night wooing me like an old decadent habit.
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Cy
Riding and Roaming
Summing the Approach
My Eyes of Yours
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With only four tracks it still manages to capture the tension and spookiness of German Water. You could say it achieves this by kidnapping all of the bratty whiny children of Spiderland and in their place substituting a team of masked assassins with roboticly precise trigger fingers. You'll notice how well the EP has built upon it's influences in "Cy", the opener, almost immediately with it's stuttering rhythms, subtle howls, and stretches of quiet, quiet guitar. I've always looked upon "Riding and Roaming", the following track, as a masterpiece of composition and mood, and you can certainly hear elements of "For Dinner..." in it's final moments of non-crescendo. But I am definitely not one to tax a band for building on the ideas of Slint. If you are, it's probably because you're upset Ativin got there first. Sucker.

Recorded by S. Albini', two guitars, drums.

Listen to "Cy" from this EP and other tracks here. Or at Epitonic.