Atlas Engine - "Modern Mind"
Words by Zach Romano.
Like most bands, Brooklyn’s Atlas Engine have remained mostly dormant through the pandemic. The Engine started back up this spring, though, and their awesome new single “Modern Mind,” released last week on Favorite Friend Records, is a trip worth taking. The band around singer/guitarist Nick LaFalce solidified a couple of years ago after lots of early lineup shifts, and “Modern Mind” is the band’s first single that features all five band members. Atlas Engine has remained locked in despite the hiatus, and all cylinders are really firing here.
Despite “Modern Mind” explicitly talking about being “trapped within these modern times,” the song feels much more like looking ahead than sticking around in the present: both the music and lyrics convey forward motion in time and space. The track starts off with a pulsing bassline and driving drum beat that competes with swirls of static. After some big synths cut through, we’re off to the races. The band syncs up to give the chorus a whole lot of oomph, and the energy built and maintained throughout the song allows the drums and bass to do some cool half-time switches without losing any momentum.
LaFalce sings about (dis)connections, resets, and the perils of progress, and the band uses more vocal effects here than on previous efforts. These, along with harmonies that occasionally flirt with dissonance, add to the song’s space-age feel. “Modern Mind” is a long track for a single, but the blistering guitar solo and chilled-out outro that close out the song are more than worth sticking around for.
“Modern Mind” is the first in a series of singles from Atlas Engine’s upcoming suite of EPs that, together, will form their debut full-length, an ambitious concept album of 12 songs that will seamlessly flow into each other as one larger piece. We can’t wait to see what the band gives us next. You can purchase “Modern Mind” via Bandcamp or stream it on Spotify. Keep up with the band by liking them on Facebook and following them on Instagram.
