Training For Utopia

No other band has constructed anything quite like the obtuse, mind-boggling sonic structures that they have. Constantly twisting, turning, tormenting their way into agonizing yet welcome release, the Northern California based quartet's songs often sound like sentient entities all of their own. Its surprising that there have been no reports of listeners being sucked in by their opaque beauty and almost contradictory murkiness, never to be heard from again. Training For Utopia was formed in October of 1996 by drummer Morley Boyer, bassist Steve Saxby and guitarist Don Clark- who soon invited his brother Ryan (late of the more straight-forward hardcore band Focal Point) into the fold to sing and play guitar. They assembled with no specific agenda; some of them were Christian, some of them were straight edge- but their only true purpose was to compose songs of absolutely devastating artistic catharsis. Their four song Falling Cycle ep on Solid State quickly drew comparisons to off-time merchants Coalesce and the genre defining Neurosis. The follow-up full length, Plastic Soul Impalement, further explored Training For Utopia's penchant for composing lengthy, personal everything-is-at-stake sounding songs of nearly cinematic proportions. But it was in fact their two song contribution to a split EP with their close brothers in Zao that incessantly hinted at the experimental territory the band would later chart with their latest slab, the appropriately titled Throwing A Wrench Into The American Music Machine. Training For Utopia are at once alarmingly bittersweet, remarkably romantic and mournfully tragic, yet often tongue-in-cheek (opening track "50,000 Screaming TFU Fans Can't Be Wrong"). Their songs cut a path of brutal-honesty-disguised-as-playful-savvy not seen since the glory days of Nation Of Ulysses. Their new album sees them experimenting with loops, samples and trance- inducing effect trickery that blends the somber beauty of Nine Inch Nails with the abrasive edge of Atari Teenage Riot and the pop sensibilities of Marilyn Manson and David Bowie. Add to that the creepy erie-ness of Today Is The Day, and you have a band that is truly transcendent, ultimately residing in a league all of their own. Training For Utopia�s songs tug at the heart strings, they inspire, they cause laughter and sorrow simultaneously- running through the full range of human emotion minute by agonizing minute. Throwing A Wrench Into The American Music Machine comes beautifully packaged with stark imagery masterfully constructed by Don, who's moonlighting work as a graphic designer has graced the pages of Heckler magazine in the past. Uncompromisingly ambitious? You betcha. Training For Utopia is a commitment to working towards a beautiful crescendo that may never come, yet they persist feverishly in their craft nevertheless. Isn't that what the term "training for utopia" is all about?