Codec is a band that makes music that is at once dangerous and beautiful, that channels the future through the past to compress and make sense of life and death. Their work deciphers the immense data of our uncertain existence and presents it on a soul level.
After the break up of 32 Leaves, Greg Norris, their former frontman, joined a new band, Codec. Together they seem to have created something rare – a unique and fresh sound in the alternative rock world. You can almost sense them channeling emotional aspects of Pink Floyd, Tears for Fears, Deftones, Meshuggah and Led Zeppelin in their intense verses, only to find yourself vaulted into the realm of early Radiohead, A Perfect Circle or even The Police or Duran Duran by their enormous choruses. Listening to their whole album, you get the feeling that they are rarely afraid to experiment with new sounds and approaches irrespective of this current cookie-cutter cotton-candy musical world we live in. From the vast pulsing sonic mindscapes of songs like Gra, Aine and Sunlight to the fierce and forceful grooves of Bifurcate, Vociferous, The Seer and Zeroth, the band seems to be communicating something well below the surface. Well beyond the artists of the day. Letting songs like Daydreamer and Horizontime flow over and tug at you, it feels as if they are beckoning in a new time for music. From the prodigious music to the intoxicating artwork, Codec’s debut full-length album, Horizontime, is not to be missed.