Travel Book

Accessible electronic music tends to fall into two categories: electro-dance, strobe-lit club-shakers, and removed, echoing disturbia. So what happens when a band presses forward and does both? You'd get Brooklyn's ArpLine, whose debut full-length Travel Book traffics in both grand club dance-press and stripped, affecting procession. Of the two sides, Travel starts its journey in the dance-up, first with opening instrumental "Speed (Rush Ah)", and then the electric "Fold Up Like a Piece of Paper", a dance anthem for the rest of us. Bigger takes on this come in the subsequent "Make It Rain" and middle piece "Weekend In the Colonies", a kind of 80s electro-procession party. Only latter number "Game" misses, as its electro-rock kind of grinds on & on.

But perhaps that's because the back half of Travel is dominated by ArpLine's removed, stripped, echoing electronica. And unlike the dance-up A-side, which kind of peaks early with "Fold Up", the restraint builds in quality, from the sad "Amplify" through "Sound and Versions" and "Cap" to closer "Rope", where the band reaches new heights of power. While the dance-up Arp is more immediately memorable, the echo-down Line is stronger in terms of quality. – QRO Magazine