Summing the Approach

Some eight years since Slint's Spiderland forever altered the indie-rock landscape, it's arguable that any valid derivations can still be fashioned from its blueprints. To be sure, Ativin's members never denied Slint's influence on their music. But over the course of an EP, a single and a full-length album, Ativin moved well beyond the pummelling soft-to-loud transitions of Slint and toward a highly distinctive blend of treated, interlocked guitar grooves, firm rhythmic manuevers and electronically-enhanced atmospheres.

All of these elements are served at precisely the right temperature on Summing The Approach, a posthumous four-song EP recorded by Steve Albini that serves as a satisfying final chapter to the Ativin novella.