Reviews for “Symbols in the Architectureâ€
"It's like a Tape Op dream." - the battering room
"...as a reviewer with wayyy too many listening options, it’s gravy to hear a
release with even an iota of the unfamiliar; to hear a band as out-there as History
At Our Disposal is a flat-out boon." - Skyscraper Magazine
“When the planets align for Reimer and company...there really is something to stand up for and applaud. [HAOD] at full power and with a great idea can transport you somewhere wonderful, awe-inspiring and perhaps a little scary.†- Impose Magazine Dan Berkman
“Tangled in spacey macrobiotic ambience, HAOD’s ‘Symbols...’ blends organic acoustic instrumentation, bubbling electronic flourishes, warm quiet passages, jagged dissonant asides, seemingly unsystematic surges and carefully calculated movements with an expertly reserved hand. If The Books and Neutral Milk Hotel assimilated into a colossal Japanese fighting robot that performed funeral dirges for circus clowns, the sonic product might be almost as eerily wonderful as Symbols in the Architecture. Artful without being obnoxiously avant-garde, audibly accessible without compromising creative uniqueness, History at Our Disposal has created an atypical breed of album that is not content to simply add atmosphere; it constructs its own orbit.†—Dallas Observer G.J. (listed best of 2007)
Tracks start and stop in fits and bursts, layers of acoustic guitars give way to restless backbeats and Reimer holds court over it all in a wobbly whisper that rises to an almost primal scream... Nothing gets cleared up here; the world is still crashing around us and there’s nothing we can do about it. But [Symbols...] reminds us that sometimes the real beauty comes from listening to the way things break.
--Alex Green -Amplifier
...a precisely, albeit forebodingly, layered mélange of dark Americana, gothic country and the most chilling of ghoulish pop that’ll raise the hairs on the back of the listener's neck. HAOD’s sinister cloth of psychedelic baroque tendencies is akin to the Elephant 6 collective having scored a Bela Lugosi film from the '30s...“Symbols...†is one album that you don’t want to find yourself listening to when you’re home alone in the middle of the night while a thunderstorm is brewing. -Chris Pacifico Soundcheck Mag.
"...resemblance to Califone as fronted by Ian Mckaye with a June of 44 vibe..." - QCLA.
drawing blog of HAOD's J. Reimer
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