Life In Vacuum

When I think of Canadian music, songs by Sum 41, Silverstein, Alexisonfire and J-Biebs storm and congest my mind. Although I know north of the border is capable of conceiving acts like SNFU, I have little impression of the good that can come out in recent years.

Two days ago is pretty recent, right? Regardless, Waterloo's noisy Life in Vacuum gives me a positive viewpoint. From the opening "You Did it to Yourself," the trio knows what it wants you to think: they simply don't care. The edgy riff in the first seconds is a candid, no-nonsense synopsis of what 5 is all about, further accentuated when the singer starts shouting the verse. It goes full force after that, and you're hooked.

The first thing that came to mind was Drive Like Jehu with its hardcore/math rock sound and the singer's rough, but well-conducted voice. But -- and as the above paragraph says -- it is more short, sweet, and to-the-point, with generally shorter song durations, and perhaps more focus. This tone is consistent throughout, while there is some variation in song structure, particularly with my favorite track "Seven," where the band somehow takes it easy as it keeps the energy revved.

Transparently, Life in Vacuum really knows what it's doing, especially evident with their formation back in 2006, the couple demos under their belt, and this self-published gem. 5 is industrious DIY at its finest. - Punknews.org

Life in Vacuum is what would happen if Comadre met ATDI met The Mars Volta. Their energy is fucking astounding and as concise as their noisy perfection gets, there’s so much narrative sparking here that you DEFINITELY need to peer into their lyrics and the story behind the curtains. 5 is one of the most hard-hitting, vibrant and ballistic records this year and chances are it’ll fly under the radar, so get in on this and thank me later.

“You Did It To Yourself” is chock-full of pounding hooks and thrashing cymbals, which compound the distorted guitar-effect, quite phenomenally. No, it’s not praise being heaped for shits and giggles. The screeching guitars and boisterous nature of the band are elements that you should be cognitive about because there’s a lot that seeps in in just under half-hour but do yourself a favor and take it in. The start-stop post-hardcore vibe on “The Edge of Boredom” complements everything that’s good about this trio as screamo influences, slap-bass, rapid kit-work and dual vocals all juggle to mark the band’s territory.

“Seven” is intricate in its mathy ambition that highlights the diversity on tap. It’s fucking catchy and hipster in its deep, sharp and cutting riffs. Hipster, spoken-word and swoon-ish all come to the fore here and with their reckless abandon, Life In Vacuum grabs you by the lapels, throwing caution to the wind, in such an experimental style and musical bravado. Their value is unabashed in a genre where many fall short due to feckless imagination, weak innovation and a lack of creativity. But this band knows how to make those flaws seem non-existent. The indie-beach vibe of “Van Life” is catchy as it plays off summer riffs and musical discord. The latter’s brought about by conflicting interplay on the guitars to add a drowning effect. So smooth, so subtle and so harmonious.

There’s immense melody in their chaos and “Passenger Mr. Funstash” ends on a cleaner take of Comadre, which reminds you that if you’re missing the latter, fear not because Life In Vacuum has the makings of something bigger and just as settling. This record hits and hits very hard so grasp its essence because there’s something unique and crafty here that plays off every fiber of you.

5/5 Stars - dyingscene.com

The term “post-hardcore” has been bastardized. When it surfaced in the late ’80s, it was used to describe many of the bands who’s members sprung out of the hardcore scene (Fugazi, Quicksand) but were infusing more melody, dissonant guitar riffs and jagged rhythmic patterns into their songwriting.

These days, many watered-down Warped Tour-approved bands have taken to calling their metalcore-meets-pop-punk sound post-hardcore. But Diffuser.fm knows better, and that’s why discovering Life In Vacuum has been such a rush.

The band’s forthcoming ‘V’ album shares a spiritual connection to many of the influential post-hardcore records Dischord and Touch & Go released a couple of decades ago, but Live In Vacuum also have a quirky way to their tempo shifts that calls to mind groups like Wire and Gang of Four.

Knowing a good thing when we hear it, Diffuser.fm volunteered to premiere the track ‘Seven,’ and Life In Vacuum agreed.

“‘Seven’ is one of the last tracks we wrote and recorded for the LP,” the band says. “It’s about being stuck in a limbo of a familiar comfortable place, going through emotions of guilt and indecision and reasoning with your own comfort trying to break away.” - diffuser.fm

When local math/punk trio Life in Vacuum decided they needed some music to sell on their upcoming U.S. tour, they opted to rewind an era or two and put it out on cassette tape, a format once thought permanently discarded but now back in indie-rock vogue.

The result, entitled Rogue Sessions, is a limited-edition release (only 100 copies have been made) and is the band’s fourth album since their formation in 2005.

As the band’s singer/guitarist Sasha Chornyy explained in a phone interview recently, the decision to put the album out in a virtually extinct format was in part a natural expression of their do-it-yourself ethic as well as a creative way around the Internet’s influence on declining CD and vinyl sales.

“A lot of shows that we play in the U.S., there are a lot of D.I.Y. collectives and a lot of D.I.Y. bands, so this is kind of like more of a D.I.Y. attitude,” he said.

“Also, considering the fact that these days people don’t really buy vinyl or CDs that much any more – it’s all digital age, so people can go onto Bandcamp or Myspace and just check out your band – they don’t really need to spend 10, 15 bucks on the record. The cassettes are really just for the novelty of having something on a weird format that not everybody would already have.”

Rogue Sessions is aptly titled, given the guerrilla-style recording technique used to capture the record’s eight songs (two of which are re-recorded tunes from the group’s 2010 Commander Clark release). The band, which also includes Chornyy’s brother Ross on drums and bassist/vocalist Dylan Bravener, has a rehearsal space in the old Boehmer box factory (now a multi-purpose space for artists) on Duke Street in Kitchener. With the help of a couple of recording-savvy friends, the band found a big empty space in the building to set up and got all the songs on tape in less time than the average band takes to tune their guitars.

“We have a space there but there’s lots of open spaces upstairs, so basically (we) just went in, checked out the first room that sounded good and set up, did it all in four hours and that was it,” said Chornyy.

Although that session took place just last month, the band first attempted recording the songs while on tour in Brooklyn, N.Y. last November when they were still a quartet. Recording came to an abrupt end, however, when their keyboard player quit the group. Chornyy said the band started out as a trio originally, so returning to the old dynamic has worked out well.

“A lot of the old fans were really into it, so we really feel like it’s a good change and we’re excited to try out this old setting with the new songs.”

The band will be heading back to the U.S. at the end of this month for a three-week tour that will take them from Michigan to Kentucky and back, just in time for their performance at the North By Northeast festival in Toronto next month. No strangers to the road, Chornyy estimates the group has toured Canada and the U.S. three times each in the past two years and said they try to revisit the same towns every six months or so to slowly build an audience.

“Every time we see 10 more kids, other places you see five more and other places you see 20 more kids, so there’s progress, we just gotta keep at it,” he said.

The venue for the cassette release party will be the appropriately unconventional Mongolian Grill restaurant on University Avenue in Waterloo, employer of all three members of Life in Vacuum and many other local musicians. With so many fellow music types on the payroll, Chornyy said getting time off for all three band members to go on tour is not as difficult as it might be elsewhere.

“Sometimes it’s hard (but) sometimes it’s good to have all your friends around you because they kind of do a similar thing. So when I go away, somebody replaces me (and) when they go away, I have to help them out,” he said.

Fast forward to later this summer and Chornyy said the band will be concentrating on recording new m - The Record

By Nicole VilleneuveJust when you think you've got a hold on Life In Vacuum, they take their crazy freak-outs in nine different directions. Although, truth be told, there's nary a moment that they stay still long enough to peg them anyway. The Waterloo, ON quartet have taken their synth-driven, hardcore-tinged art punk to a new conceptual level on first full-length Commander Clark, which is based on a short story about "life in the fifth dimension and its inhabitants," though the story is nearly impossible to glean from vocalist/guitarist Sasha Chornyy's throaty wail. Reminiscent of Toronto's DD/MM/YYYY, Life in Vacuum feel consistent in their inconsistency, matching post-punk jerkiness with rockabilly riffs in "Light Bulb" and grinding, sludgy breakdowns with poppy sing-along lines in "Storm"; it's a feat manageable only by a group of musicians as tight as these guys. Commander Clark is indeed an ambitious undertaking, but it's a rewarding listen for those who don't mind being challenged every now and then.
(Independent) - EXCLAIM magazine

Life in Vacuum isn't afraid to experiment as proven in their new sci-fi CD/comic book, Commander Clark.
By Jason Schneider, for NightLife

September 8, 2010

When brothers Ross and Sasha Chornyy moved to K-W with their family six years ago from Ukraine, the immediate challenge was to adapt to their new environment. Fortunately for the brothers, the experience they each had playing punk rock up until then made it a bit easier to fit in.

In fact, it allowed them to form a band together for the first time, the result being Life In Vacuum, featuring Sasha on guitar and vocals, Ross on drums, Dylan Bravener on bass, and Kevin Boyle on keyboards.

“Our parents are both engineers and were looking for better job opportunities, and just better life generally,” Sasha explains. “Back there, my brother and I were in separate bands but always wanted to play together. That happened only when we moved to Canada.”

He adds that it didn’t take long for him to feel accepted once he became involved in the local music scene. “The first people that became my friends six years ago were ones that I met at shows. Music helped erase the language and cultural differences. I remember at some point me, my brother and my sister were known as ‘the Ukraines’ — people referred to us as a crew.”

The brothers have responded to the welcoming attitude by turning Life In Vacuum into one of the most exciting young bands in the city. Their combination of punk rock fury and Radiohead-style experimentalism has already been captured well on two EPs over the past two years, but the band’s new full-length release, Commander Clark, is easily their most ambitious work to date.

Sasha doesn’t hesitate to call it a concept album, with its sci-fi story revolving around the space-hopping title character, sent back in time on a mission to find out why his planet turned out the way it has. Sasha says, “Basically, it’s a very big metaphor for ‘what would happen if the world turns upside down.’ Dogs have started ruling the earth and humans are now kept as pets. The name Clark came from our friend and biggest fan Andy Clark.”

As a bonus, Sasha — who does all of Life In Vacuum’s artwork as well — created a comic book to tell the story in more graphic detail. He says that once that was decided, the entire project took on a lot more meaning. “We had songs first; music always comes first for us.

“But this idea seemed like a joke at first, and I didn’t really know where I wanted to go with the lyrics. Then I started thinking of it visually and started writing lyrics as I was drawing the comic book frame by frame. The whole story slowly came together after that and we decided to make it a concept album.”

Both the Commander Clark CD and comic are available as a package at K-W record stores Encore and Orange Monkey, as well as through the band’s MySpace page. It will also be on sale at Life In Vacuum’s upcoming appearances at Mom’s Tattoo in Uptown Waterloo on Sept. 15 and the KOI Festival in downtown Kitchener on Sept. 18.

It’s all another step toward the band becoming self-sustainable, which Sasha says is their primary goal. “We want to speak out to people with our music — get them to come to shows, pick up an instrument, start a band, put on a show. Basically, we want to inspire people to Do It Yourself.” - The Record