If hindsight is 2020, it’s an appropriate year for the reissue of the eponymous debut by Washington DC’s The American Workplace. In hindsight, that odd moment in rock music that perched on the seam between the millennia was deservedly breathless and worth revisiting, as punks who cared less about haircuts and dive bars and more about experimenting with noise and pop recruited classical musicians, attempted full-on melodies, and generally strove to communicate a deeper intelligence, even while fracturing the sounds their instruments were designed to create.

​

Now being “reissued” on streaming services for the first time, the lone recording of The American Workplace brings a continuous stream of fond memories from the post-rock pinnacle that was Y2K. The sprawling, aptly entitled travelogue that is “Your Math Is Killing Me” careens down a highway of vibraphones, synth, pointillist guitar, and glich-pop without completely losing its way. The soaring “From the Perspective of the Agent’s Lover,” swaths a tale of a tragic g-man in a haze of Jean Cook’s stunning violin. “Prose of Unspeakable Beauty” brings vocal-instrumental irony to bear via a point-counterpoint of pop and noise, while “Endpiece” traces an arc from minimalist laptop to orchestral overload in the vein of Godspeed You Black Emperor. For those who find the likes of Storm and Stress, Tortoise, Dirty Three, and Don Caballero vinyl at the top of their recently played stack, TAW provides a full post-rock review course, often in a single tune.

 

As reviewed by Held Like Sound magazine back in the day, these are “profoundly pretty pop songs tortured into an indelible debut,” now rediscovered like a sonic time capsule intended for the thirsty ears of the future.

​

Core members:

Eric Bruns - Bass, Clarinet, Vocals

Jonathan Carson - Guitars, Vocals

Dan Dresser - Guitars, Vocals

Patrick Mucklow - Drums

​

Contributors: 

Jean Cook - Violin

Amber Dunleavy - Theremin

Lary Hoffman - Vibraphone

Finn McCool - French Horn

Doug Wolf - Electronics

​

Producer: 

J. Christian Quick, Stillness Studios

​