Embrace Fire

 Embrace Fire were a band from the Netherlands, active from 2004 to what appears to be somewhere around 2008, though they may have kept playing live past that point; they released two compilation tracks that year, and their website went offline at the end of it. The band included members from Raise Kain and springrain. Musically, Embrace Fire had more in common with bands like Life at These Speeds or Your Halo Is A Radar than their previous work, combining angular emo\post-hardcore with post-punk. The band's own press release describes the result as a combination of "Bloc Party, Explosions In the Sky and At the Drive-In," and… that's actually a pretty accurate self-assessment, especially for a piece of promotional fluff, though it does downplay the emo influences in the music, which are strong.

The band's first release was an EP in 2006, We Lost Our Organ Player in a great earthquake. It was self-released on a CDr in a cardboard sleeve (the first copy I bought was corrupted, forcing me to source a second). Later that same year, the band released a digital single through a website called Thrown, Unthrown. Sadly, no archives remain. One of the two songs, the title track, was put on a compilation, but the other track remains lost. Besides that, there was one other song on a compilation, "The Soft House," which showcases the band heading in a very different direction from the EP, moving towards post-rock. I would have liked to hear what they would have done with that sound, but nothing came of it.

Best as I can determine, that means I'm only missing one song from Embrace Fire, but their discography is small enough that a single song still represents a significant chunk of it.

Embrace Fire

The Oliver Twist

 

The Oliver Twist (later to be known as The Oliver Twist Band and then Eine Oliver Twist Kooperation) were a band from Cologne, Germany, active from 1999 until 2006. Their changes in name reflected a steady changing of their sound over each album release, starting in emo before moving into post-punk\dance-punk and finally ending at electropunk, moving them beyond the jurisdiction of this blog. But I've assembled their first three albums, all of which include emo to a varying degree.

Their first album, 1999's sweet, sweet and coffee talk, is pure 90s midwest emo pop, sitting somewhere between The Get Up Kids and Cap'n Jazz, with the vocal performance leaning heavily towards the latter. Just prior to the album, the band also released a split 7" with Colt with two songs, one of which was rerecorded for the LP. This first LP is my favorite of the band's releases, a great slice of late-90s emo pop. The band also contributed a track to the great Achtung Autobahn compilation, along with Reno Kid. Another band on that compilation, The Robocop Kraus, may have proven very influential, given The Oliver Twist's future direction.

Their next album, 2001's Automatic Construct Kill, isn't too far removed from the first in many respects—depending on the song. It brings in a lot more influence from post-punk and post-hardcore, being a bit harder-edged in general and showing early signs of the band's eventual sound with additional usage of synths and electronic beats. Two years later, the band would release their third album in 2003, which saw them moving an even greater distance from their emo roots. This change was marked by different branding; they became The Oliver Twist Band, a less abstract and slightly more formal version of the same name. While noticeable traces of emo remain, especially the emocore revival of the aughts, new tricks and traps is really a post-punk\dance-punk album.

In 2006, the band would rename themselves again, this time to Eine Oliver Twist Kooperation, and embraced an electropunk sound that is well outside this blog's focus. If you're interested, you can find the album on Spotify. New tricks and traps is also on streaming, but for some reason is missing the ninth track.

The Oliver Twist

Red Eye Nine

 Red Eye Nine were a band from Boston, active in the late 90s. They were on Lunch Records along with fellow Bostonian emo\post-punk band Helicopter Helicopter. This review on AllMusic seems to indicate they went through some lineup changes during their brief existence. I know very little about them, to the point the preceding sentences sum up pretty much everything outside of their single release.

The band's only release appears to be 1999's Standing On Ceremony, a shouty blend of emocore, post-punk, and a couple dashes of post-hardcore and emo pop. The result is more easygoing than you'd probably expect. They sound kind of like a more laid back Life at These Speeds. I really enjoy this album, it's surprisingly relaxing for something so obviously rooted in emocore and post-punk (emocore-lite? post-emo-popcore punk?). Sometimes it reminds me of The Van Pelt, though not as focused on spoken word and without as much midwest emo. At other points it's more reminiscent of something like The Lapse.

Standing On Ceremony

8-bit Revival

8-bit Revival are a band from Dayton, Ohio, active from 2001 to the present. Initially, they were called The 8-bit Revival, but shortened it after their debut EP. Despite being around for over twenty years, their sound has been fairly consistent, always being some mixture of emo pop, post-punk, and indie rock with plenty of influences from pop punk, post-hardcore, and math rock, though the post-punk would become increasingly prominent in time. After releasing an EP and two albums between formation and 2010, the band would change their name to Oh Condor after getting tired of being mistaken for a chiptune outfit. As Oh Condor, they put out an EP in 2012 and then went dark for almost a full decade before releasing another LP in 2021. Despite the name change, the band still lays claim to all their former work as 8-bit Revival, rereleasing the albums under the Oh Condor name with slightly altered artwork.

Since the band is still active and their music is readily available, I'm putting up only one of their albums, 2006's Under the Fairweather, their first full-length. Everything else can be had through Bandcamp.

under the fairweather

Oh Condor on Bandcamp

oliver

 In the conversation about European contributions to emo, the focus tends to be on places that had\have emo scenes that produced albums at least relatively well known elsewhere, most notably the UK and Germany. But emo is for everyone and can come from anywhere, and Italy has been producing great emo and post-hardcore acts for decades now: bands like Fine Before You Came, And So Your Life Is Ruined, and Regarde.

Oliver were a similar band from Italy. Their first release is a split from that year with the emo pop band Waker (which seems to be Waker's only release). Oliver's sound is actually quite interesting, especially for 2000. They sort of split the difference between Cap'n Jazz and American Football, the two sides of the Kinsella sound—balancing Cap'n Jazz's freewheeling id with American Football's noodly, placid ego. The result is mathy and beautiful midwest emo pop. Whoever added this album to Discogs must not have put the CD in a drive, because there are actually ten tracks on the split. The last track isn't mentioned at all in the liner notes, but judging by the vocals and its placement I think it's another Oliver song.

I had thought that this split was Oliver's only recorded work, but as it turns out, I was wrong. The band would release a full album in 2005, Little Human Detail. In the five years since the split, the band developed its sound in a post-punk direction while keeping their emo roots. Considering the gap between the album and the split, I find it likely that Oliver have other releases as well, but have yet to unearth them.

a split recording

Little Human Detail

Caesura

Caesura were a UK band from Winchester, formed in 2005. They exist as yet more evidence that a miniature wave of post-rock\midwest emo hybrid bands rose up in the aughts, combing post-rock's vast soundscapes with midwest emo's twinkling ennui. Caesura follow that formula well, but they also bring something a bit different to the table in the form of post-punk influences, which makes sense given the time period. This puts them in the rare company of bands that mixed emo with the garage rock revival, such as The Diggs—but given Caesura's home turf, a more fitting comparison would be their fellow countrymen One Toy Soldier, who also sometimes sound a bit like Bloc Party.

Caesura put out their first release in the form of the Dear Light Outside EP in 2006. They also contributed a track to a compilation; during the same sessions, they recorded second track that went unreleased. I'm able to include it here thanks to one of the band members. In 2008, the band would change their name to On Histories of Rosenberg and release a final EP. 

Caesura Discography

The Diggs

In 2006, The Diggs' frontman Timothy Lannen gave an interview to Today. In response to the possibility that the band's first record, Commute, was an emo album, he replied: "'I believe emo to be, in the truest sense, Fugazi or Shudder to Think or Sunny Day Real Estate. All of whom I like. But we’re not those bands. As far as how a lot of people mean it, it seems to mean unlistenable or interchangeable,' he says. Then firmly offers, 'Commute' is 'not an emo record.' He then chuckles and admits The Diggs may get the label incorrectly hung on them because 'I have a tendency to scream a little sometimes.'"

Like most artists trying to dodge the dreaded 'emo' label, he's wrong—and it's telling that only one of the three examples he used was an emo band. But he was right in the sense that the label would indeed get hung on them, and in the sense that The Diggs were not a typical emo band. Based in New York during the height of the post-punk revival, The Diggs were essentially the American side of what One Toy Soldier was doing at the same time. If One Toy Soldier is the answer to the hypothetical, "what if Bloc Party were an emo band" then The Diggs would answer the corollary, "what if The Strokes were an emo band?" One Toy Soldier traded in harsher, discordant midwest emo-flavored indie rock. The Diggs have some of that too (listen to those Christie Front Drive chords during the climax of "Trouble Everyday"), but they pull more from emo pop, at least on the first album. The second album, ctrl-alt-del, has a more pronounced midwest emo influence.

Their first album, Commute, is a wonderful fusion of post-punk indie rock and emo pop. It transitions effortlessly between emo builds in songs like opener "It's Just Like You Say" and the catchy post-punk revival of "Everyone's Starting Over." Album closer "Trouble Everyday" is epic and a personal favorite. The second album moves a bit away from the sounds, if not the rhythms, of the New York indie rock scene and opts for more traditionally emo tones. It also features what may be The Digg's finest four minutes and thirty-three seconds with "…And In The End Shoot Back." Songs like "Brigante" and "Recovery Forever" also really highlight what the band took from midwest emo.

Commute was released in 2005, ctrl-alt-del in 2008. Besides these two LPs, the band also has a 2005 EP, Orange, but the same versions of all the songs on it are included on Commute. As far as I know, both albums make up The Diggs' entire discography.

Commute & ctrl-alt-del