Smother.net http://www.smother.net/reviews/punk.php3?ID=366 October 2005 EDITOR'S PICK Infinite Number of Sounds - Radio Whales Cleveland’s indie rock experimental group Infinite Number of Sounds deliver a one-two punch that will strike fear in the heavyweights of experimental music. Using musical collages as their playground, the band generates early rock-n-roll grooves with pop-rock hooks and electro’s cut-and-paste song structure. With a slew of bands that are starting to incorporate odd electronica into their rock formulas, one could initially think that this is burgeoning on the realm of derivative but that would be missing their best attribute, which simply stated is the genius marriage of melody and seemingly chaotic ambience. Art rock that’s damn good. - J-Sin ---------- Aiding & Abetting November 2005 http://www.aidabet.com/issues/270/270reviews.html#INFINITE Infinite Number of Sounds Radio Whales (self-released) The sort of blocky, introspective instrumentals that I tend to enjoy. There's a logic to each piece, and nonetheless the playing is engaging and fun. These boys ride a fine line between automation and exuberance--and they make that tension last all album. I can guess what comes next most of the time (that whole logical thing), but that doesn't make the ideas any less intriguing. Why are the songs say what they are? And how are they saying it without words? That second question is a joke, and the first one is merely facetious. That's the sort of geeky whimsy this album inspires in me. And I can't say I'm sorry about that. Swell, in the very best sense. I like the way these guys roll. I suppose that's as complicated as my enjoyment gets. It's nice to simply settle down and have a good time every once in a while. ----------- Rag Magazine Infinite Number of Sounds Radio Whales This is perhaps the soundtrack of our lives. It reminds that music takes precedence over voice, a reaction built from within various displays of instrumentation. A record that truly allows you to hear and focus on each individual instrument bass, guitar, drums and helps you come to terms with their relationship to one another. Without voice coming from a microphone with Radio Whales, it forces to focus on creativity beyond words. Its music that can easily set the mood for whatever predicament you might find yourself in. "Kiss My Converse" is sonically developed in an artistic display with rhythms that help your mind venture beyond standard radio friendly distraction. "What is Happening to My Body" sounds like various questions asked through the voice of music, the throbbing intro beats set the stage for an electronic voyage into the unknown. Sounds like something that Radiohead's Thom Yorke was meant to take part in, a presentation that focuses on the significance of sound, and the various possibilities of an instrument at hand. The guitar really talks to you, with sequenced sounds capable of pinching every nerve and conjuring many emotional imags in your mind. Absorb and inhale the sounds of Infinite Number of Sounds, this new enjoyable blend of experimental rock. -Joseph Vilane -------- Recoil Magazine http://www.recoilmag.com/unsigned_artists.html January 2006 INFINITE NUMBER OF SOUNDS RADIO WHALES CLEVELAND, IND January 2006 There are no words. Except some crowd noise in the background on one track, and an excerpt of a fictional short story read over the top of another, the disc is entirely experimental and instrumental. But no words doesn’t mean no message. Infinite Number of Sounds couldn’t be a more aptly named group, and its infinite number of sounds reach out and capture the attention of the unwary listener. INS’ second release, Radio Whales, changes tempo and tone at a fiery pace. Turbulent guitars dominate or duel for equal billing with the keyboard on “Fast Fashion” and many other early songs on the disc. INS waxes aboriginal on “Duidire,” featuring Andy Ludick on didgeridoo and very tribal sounding percussion. This sound gives way to a solitary monologue and an accelerating frenzy of Romanian-sounding violin and guitar on “Red Human-Headed Bull (the only track with “lyrics”).” The alternately plucky and dreamy keyboard samples on “Airborn Young” are oddly soothing. The first listen is somewhat discombobulating, maybe even abrasive if you’ve been listening to a lot of mainstream music, but before long the songs start to feel like friends and you begin to appreciate the absolute originality of it all (with the exception that the ghost of Modest Mouse may have yanked on the bedsheets of the sleeping title track, in playful, ghostly fun). Radio Whales – like the songs of its oceanic counterpart – can be enjoyed for its mesmerizing sounds while we try to unearth its mysterious meaning – it leaves the listener longing for more. Find more information on INS at infinitenumber.com. -- Kimberly Frantz -------- Cleveland Scene August 2005 REGIONAL BEAT Infinite Number of Sounds Radio Whales (Infinite Number of Sounds Recording Company) By D.X. Ferris Published: Wednesday, August 10, 2005 Infinite Number of Sounds is a perennial nominee for Best Alternative/Electronic act at Scene's Cleveland Music Awards. And for a largely instrumental group with an experimental bent, the group rocks hard and never strays too far from a hook. Behind their wall of art rock, they might be closet metalheads. "Washington Monument" would fit in your favorite stoner band's set list. "The Red Human-Headed Bull" slides down a deep groove, from guitar arabesques to frantic metal fretwork. The album ends with a string of performance-art suites. The group's live shows are intricately edited multimedia presentations that synchronize with the music. Stripped of that visual presentation, Infinite Number's music is just as evocative. ----------------- Cleveland Scene July 2005 Few bands manage to be as stimulating visually as they are musically, but Cleveland's Infinite Number of Sounds is all about sensory overload. The band's multi-media live shows are both dizzying and dramatic, with the four-piece incorporating digital video imagery into their sets and synching it up with the beat. The band's amorphous electro-rock is just as elaborate, spanning everything from experimental electronica to bristling post-rock on their latest, Time Wants a Skeleton. Bounded by nothing but the players' own imaginations, this group's sound is among the most open-ended around. ----------------- INtake (Indianapolis, IN) July 2005 Infinte Number of Sounds Genre: Experimental multimedia See them: 9 p.m. July 23 at the Red Room From: Cleveland, OH Web site: www.infinitenumber.com On any level, you must love a band whose self-description includes the phrase "from breakbeat to babershop." This band isn't just a clever name; they attack the concept literally, building a multimedia imagery assault around an electro-rock firmament. The projected video is actually edited live to the beat by artist Gummow. As apt to perform at an art installation as they are at a music summit, Infinite Number of Sounds seems to be one of the more interesting tickets on a very full weekend. ----------------- http://www.citybeat.com/2005-01-19/soundadvice.shtml January 2005 Infinite Number of Sounds with (in)camera Saturday * Northside Tavern Infinite Number of Sounds from Cleveland forges a sound foundry of synths and samples to create a diverse collage that's both ambient and wild. The troupe calls itself an "electro-rock/media-art performance group" and they run the gamut from moody, almost cocktail-lounge Jazz ("Emo Joe") to video game soundtrack Techno ("Book of Destiny") to something resembling both in the same song. Their cut-n-paste approach makes for an interesting listening experience, as their songs are best viewed as movements in a symphony (sometimes within a singular song itself) than as standard "Rock" songs. But, unlike a lot of laptop Beethovens, their music is infused with a sense of humor that you don't have to be an Electronica aficionado, or even a "music insider," to understand. The humorous elements -- like the Kung Fu yell samples in "Disfingered" -- actually serve as punctuation of sorts to signal a sea change in the music. Their show also has visual accompaniment in the form of video projections that serve as a kind of "dreaming out loud" to the music. The projections are a fever dream of pop culture that make as many, if not more, references than INS' music does. The images aren't just random, though; they fall precisely in harmony with the music to create a unique blend of the concrete and abstract, making the observer both think and groove. Infinite Number of Sounds is an aural "junk drawer" whose found-sound objects are arranged into a cohesive whole to form a hybrid of outsider art and cybersonic gleam. If Mozart owned a hi-tech industry, Infinite Number of Sounds would be played in the halls all day. The band members -- who also splinter off into a just-short-of-infinite number of musical and artistic side-projects (see infinitenumber.com for the run-down) -- are currently working on their second full-length CD, tentatively titled Radio Whales and tagged with a release date this spring. (Dale Johnson) ----------------- Cool Cleveland Cleveland's never seen anything like them: half rock thrashers, half experimental video artists, half hip-hop break beatsters, half tripped out studio wizards - it all adds up to something sweet, sharp and sincerely new.