3 out of 5

Label: Expert Works

Produced by: Pat Lilley

The hype sticker for Expert Works rescued-from-the-indie-depths compilation of late 90s / early 00s indie punkers Akarso drops “Call Me Lightning” into the RIYLs, and then when I was met with hyperspeed bass slams, non-stop time changes, and Panoply Academy-like mid-song “okay, we’re writing a new song now” moments, I was left a little puzzled over that callout. But a familiarity timbre in the vocals had me check the crew: Nathan Lilley – vocals. Ah.

Nathan, of course, is the frontman for CML, and when you backtrack from that the DNA is undeniably there, but also: we all gotta start somewhere. Which isn’t to say that Akarso’s scattered material isn’t an impressive starting point for a trio of then-highschoolers – it’s incredibly impressive in that regard – but it’s also kind of exactly what you’d expect of some talented, overactive Discord / punkers to piece together at that age, which is… pretty messy. It’s a little too much.

Call Me Lightning can be a bit much, taking the Who-inspiration of their name and wrapping it around punk / post-punk, led by Lilley’s boisterous vocals. But they counter it with song structure that provides breathing room between its instant swings into intensity. Meanwhile, Akarso was all intensity, and also all about breaking song structure as much as possible, and doing that as quickly as possible, but still extending that to 3- or 4-minute songs. It’s pretty exhausting.

On the plus side, Carl Saff gives us a great mastering that I’m sure makes this stuff way more listenable than the originals, giving the low end a gut punch and keeping the shredding guitars and Lilley’s shredded vocals prominent but not overwhelming in the mix, and then most importantly making three separate recording sessions sound like they belong together. Smart sequencing also rearranges an ambient / noise track at the end of the run of the loudest stuff, enforcing a pause before tracks done as a split with Faraquet show off a slightly-more evolved version of the band – still fast and loud and non-stop, but at least mostly sticking to a single song at a time.

So the stuff sonically sounds good, and it makes a visceral impact; but it’s also so scattershot that it has trouble finding a groove for a lasting impression. Instead, those impressions come from the moments when the group allows themselves enough patience for a section of a song to build… though chasing it away with a lot of sound and fury thereafter.

Packaging-wise, it’s a little weird that we only get liner notes from a member of Faraquet (whose tracks aren’t on here, logically – just the Akarso ones from their split) and no one from the original band, and the inner sleeve that collects photos and flyers effects the same kind of scattered, unfocused vibe as the band. Fitting, but that means it also doesn’t leave a lasting impression.

But, as always, I love how Expert Works curates their catalogue overall, and it’s undeniable that this is a fitting puzzle piece of rescued indie punk amidst their growing selection of Akarso’s chronological peers.