Analogue II

Although its moniker Analogue II did not surface until the early 2000s, the North Carolina avant-garde and progressive rock outfit traces its origins to the preceding decade. Drawing direct or indirect inspiration from Tortoise, Slint, King Crimson, and Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention, the group essentially continues the earlier project Analogue under a fresh identity and with modest roster adjustments; three participants from that initial incarnation—David Heller, Jennifer Greer, and Matthew J. Westlake—carried over into the renamed ensemble. Emerging from North Carolina during the mid-1990s, the original Analogue pursued an eccentric, psychedelic-tinged strain of avant-garde and progressive rock. Its founding roster comprised Greer on electric keyboards, synthesizers, electric bass, and glockenspiel alongside Westlake on electric guitar and vocals, plus David Cantwell on drums and Christopher Karlof on electric bass and electric guitar, with Heller later adding electric guitar and electric bass. The band issued its debut single, “Average Luck Charm,” via the Sonic Bubblegum imprint in 1995. This was followed in 1996 by the full-length AAD/AAA on the same label and, the next year, by Rock Proper. By the early 2000s the project had become Analogue II after Cantwell and Karlof departed, making room for drummer Heath Grant and the vocalist known as the Torch Marauder—though much of the music remains instrumental. With Greer, Westlake, Heller, Grant, and the Torch Marauder now in place, the band tracked Oh Perfect Masters for Rubric Records, a Knitting Factory Records/Knit Media subsidiary, in early 2002; the album appeared that August.