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Album Details

• Artist: Systems Officer
• Album: Systems Officer EP
• Label: Ace Fu
• Year of Release: 2004
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2004-07-03

Armistead Burwell Smith IV (also known as Zach) is about to drop his first album away from his Pinback cohort Rob Crow. He has chosen the name Systems Officer to call this project and as this self-titled EP shows, we are in for a treat with Zach on his own. There is a lot of Pinback similarities but it seems like Zach is stretching out a little more. This 5 song EP starts out with a track called "Forever This Cyanide", a gentle introduction to Systems Officer. Zach's vocals sound fresh and ready for this project. They guitar is quiet and reserved with what seems like a fairly good production. Then he kicks in with the self-titled track, a song that could fit into the New York sound ala Interpol. The upbeat mood eases back again for "Signature Red", a rather emotional track that is arranged perfectly for what little is going on. Times like this he sounds a little along the lines of Modest Mouse only not a jerky. "Desert / Sea" is another gentle track and then Zach closes out with the piano ballad "Hael". Systems Officer is a good project in the vein of Folk Implosion or even Tarwater. The music is gentle but never forced. I will be interested to see what Armistead will be able to do on a full-length album, will it get tired or will he inject a little life like the title track on this EP?

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