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ABICA is one of those acts that you can’t quite put a finger on. Sure, there’s plenty of artists that like to pepper their bios with statements about how they “can’t be classified by genre,” “meld styles,” etc., but most of the time it’s nothing but meaningless PR fluff and empty babble. ABICA, on the other hand, has every right to make those type of statements – they’d all be legitimately accurate.

On their third studio album, NUMB, the duo of TAC and HASH send a shockwave of creativity from their epicenter of Algonquin, Illinois.

While their MySpace page lists them as “Hip-Hop/Rock/Rap” (all true to an extent), there’s an industrial flavor to NUMB that sets it apart from the pack. The inclusion of dark electronic elements and ambient sounds creates a backdrop that makes NUMB particularly intriguing.

Opening the album with a lonely piano playing atop a barely-there abient track a la NINE INCH NAILS, the title cut builds for a good minute-forty before any vocals are heard, ending on a haunting note. “Tell Us Why” brings the fuzzed-out guitars with force, the first of four BINARY AUDIO-produced tracks, featuring a melodic rock chorus that recalls a bit of a FILTER-esque vibe to offset the rapped verses.

“Turn Me On,” “The Pursuit,” and “Never That Far Away” find the vocals taking a more sinister turn, angrier and more horrorcore in their delivery. The rocked-up numbers are where NUMB really dangles a carrot like on “B Down” with it’s muted guitars, and the album closer “What You See” makes me wonder how the duo plans to pull some of these off live.

Having been on the bill with the likes of HED(p.e.), KOTTONMOUTH KINGS, INSANE CLOWN POSSE, and HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD in the past, ABICA could easily find themselves right at home within the halls of Psychopathic or Suburban Noize – and will likely continue growing their listenership with ears grabbed from both camps.

Tracklisting

1. Numb
2. Tell Us Why (Feat. Binary Audio)
3. Turn Me On
4. My Song (Feat. Cant)
5. The Things You Think I Say (Feat. Approaching Nirvana)
6. The Pursuit
7. Take This Away
8. I Can Be Real
9. Gave Em A Reason
10. Beautiful
11. Blurry (Feat. Cant)
12. B Down
13. Just Another
14. Never That Far Away
15. Nothing Here
16. What You See

Websites

MySpace.com/ABiCA

Release Date:

• 08/03/2010

Reviewer:

• James Zahn