Aqueous – adjective : of, relating to, or resembling water.

Aqueous – noun : Buffalo, NY rock/groove/funk band whose music will melt your face.

While this young foursome may only be in their mid-20’s, they certainly have the musicianship and onstage persona of a band twice their age.

Building a name for themselves in the festival circuit with outstanding performances at Moe.Down, Catskill Chill and Peach Festival to name a few, as well as amassing an impressive 982,100 downloads on their archive.org page, Aqueous continues to show no signs of slowing down.

The boys are now poised to release their third full-length album Cycles due out October 21st, and they are currently on a massive Fall Tour up and down the East Coast supporting the album.

Upon listening to this album, I was immediately struck by the incredible sound quality present. While comparisons can be drawn in terms of content and physical sound to the group’s last album, 2012’s Willy is 40, Cycles presents an evolving, noticeable progression for the band in terms of both song composition and sound, specifically in their ability to capture their unique live sound on this record.

The album begins with a one minute A cappella that builds into a crescendo of violins before exploding into a nine and a half minute epic entitled “Kitty Chaser” (Explosions). This track is a solid representation of Aqueous’s signature live sound, as it carefully blends trippy verses full of effects-driven guitars, spacey synths and soulful vocals, combined with huge choruses full of ripping, distorted guitar riffs and solos that beautifully echo the melodies and harmonies of guitarists/vocalists Mike Gantzer and Dave Loss. 

The next track “20/20” is another epic psychedelic jam that starts slow and quiet with low, funky bass tones provided by Evan McPhaden and fast, tight drumming courtesy of Nick Sonricker. The song builds again into a big, ambient chorus full of melodic guitars, distorted, echoing vocals and even turntable scratching and more of those violins. 

 

From there, Cycles only pulls the listener further on an intergalactic ride through time and space. 

“Skyway” employs trippy effects and distorted talking in a chilled-out breakdown, until it slowly erupts into dueling guitar solos for the remaining two minutes of the song. “King For a Day” has almost a southern-rock twang to its guitar riffs, which funny enough perfectly complements the funk-reggae verses, huge harmony-laden choruses and ripping guitar solos. (by this point, the listener should be well-accustomed to these) 

Next, comes the eight minute “Complex Pt. I”, which continues in a similar trippy and groovy vein as the others – big, heavy riff choruses, shredding solos left and right, plenty of elements of funk and jam, and tons of melody. Seemingly out of nowhere, the song is followed by “Wandering”, a two minute ambient instrumental, which incorporates acoustic guitar, piano and soft “woos” sung in tandem. The song then transitions smoothly into the nine minute “Complex Pt. II”, which works well as a “sequel” to “Complex Pt. I”. Make no mistake; “Pt. II” can easily stand on its own two legs, and is one of the best songs on the album.

Possibly my favorite song on Cycles might be the incredibly infectious tune “The Median”. It begins with verses that have an almost hip-hop quality to the vocals, once again employing harmonies from both vocalists. The chorus is incredibly catchy as well, with both vocalists singing lyrics- “All these days, turn into one. And all this life, has just begun. Let’s take this time, and work it out.  ‘Cas we got time.” Add in a breakdown with slap bass, shredding keyboard riffs and interesting break-beats and fills. Ending with an outro of melodic guitars and huge harmonies, and you have “The Median”.

 

The final song on Cycles is the 15 minute opus “Staring into the Sun”, which acts really as a beautiful culmination of everything that this album has to offer. Shredding guitar solos a-plenty, soulful harmonies, funk and groove driven verses and bridges (with horns and piano sprinkled in), and just for good measure- more violins. 

Coming in at 74 minutes, with a majority of the songs at least seven minutes in length, Cycles is definitely an album that you are going to have to sit down a few times with to digest completely. 

As a whole, Cycles is a strikingly accurate representation of Aqueous’s intense, high-energy onstage persona, which is quite the feat for a band to accomplish especially in their genre.  (if you can put a finger on their genre…) Whereas some critics might assert that “jam bands” inherently recycle and re-hash old material, Aqueous clearly avoids this pitfall. On Cycles, these guys clearly had outlined a vision for this album, and they executed that vision 100%. 

All in all, I have been very impressed with the consistency of all Aqueous’s albums. Besides being a great album in and of itself, Cycles represents yet another progression for a band that is only getting bigger and better with time. Fans are surely eager to see and hear how Aqueous will incorporate these new songs into their already tremendous live show.

To pre-order Cycles, go here. For more info on Aqueous’s Fall Tour, check here.

Mark McGwin 10/8/14