Animals As Leaders, Animals As Leaders

Animals As Leaders is the solo project of seven- and eight-string guitarist Tosin Abasi, who has played with such bands as the now-defunct Washington, DC band Reflux and Born of Osiris; I was quite honestly very excited to be reviewing the guy’s debut album as Animals As Leaders. Besides being blown away by the absolute insane talent and musicianship of Tosin, I had never heard progressive rock so creatively fused with electronica outside of the likes of experimental free-jazz DnB artist Squarepusher. With a lot of progressive releases, it’s often like a competition to see how fast one can shred or how many time signature changes one can throw into an eleven-minute song, but with Animals As Leaders the songs are all very organic and natural. AAL creates a listening experience that is combination of Blade Runner and Tron, with a little bit of Dreamscape thrown in — and if you don’t know those movies, you probably won’t like this album, either. Easily one of the best releases of the year.