Ave - Follow Your Saint EP

Denmark's Ave strive to create highly symphonic proportions--the quartet succeeds on its Follow Your Saint. The EP glides through six tracks of icy trip-hop and post-classical pop, finding like-minded noisemakers in Radiohead, Sigur Ros and Portishead. For all the disc's desolate soundscapes, it's surprisingly epic sounding. Opener "Toll For the Brave" is propelled by minimal bleeps through the verses before its huge, U2-doesAmnesiac chorus. "Pilgrimage" is an awkward, disjointed pilgrimage through a wintry vastness, and "Endless Light (Live)" uses a typewriter as a its central percussion. The weakest point--though Dennis Winterskov sings Ave's songs in English, his falsetto makes his lyrics often incomprehensible, though its a voice whose strength is in its usage as another instrument. The band's press sheet says that they're ready to take on the US in 2007, and feel optimistic about conquering college radio. Follow Your Saint is a solid EP, but college radio can be a monster, and unknowns lacking label recognition are more often than not turned away before making it to the door. [www.ave-music.com]