a frames: 2

The A Frames’ second album—appropriately titled 2—is the classic followup to their stellar debut. Influenced by their heroes Wire, the A Frames were not content to make their sophomore full-length a copycat of their first. Instead, they took their post-punk-cum-KBD / garage sound and expanded and twisted it. Recorded in a weekend by Chris Woodhouse, it is one of the best albums of the ’00s. “Finally, someone has released a worthy followup to Gang of 4’s Entertainment,” wrote Go Metric. Blank Generation countered with “You can throw all the Gang of Four / Fall / Wire references you want at this band, but all I can say is that the A Frames are quite simply creating some of the most captivating sounds around. Their second full-length is even weirder than the first, adhering to the robot-wave construction of their first record, but tinkering with the formula enough to keep it sounding new…. These guys have put themselves yet another step or two ahead of the crowd with a record that may even be better than their first.” Maximum Rocknroll said, “this sucker is flat-out classic… [Woodhouse] is starting to look like the Trademark of Quality for raw art-garage.” Roctober cooed, “Though it seems impossible for robots to have souls this is basically the lost, brilliant, organic Kraftwerk LP (where they added guitars). This is so futuristic it makes my vision hurt.”