Kevin Bronson on November 14th, 2011

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Archer Black is the sound of all hell breaking loose – references to wars, bombs, triggers, guns, bayonets and other manner of ordnance all surface amid the orchestral rock on the Los Angeles band’s debut album “Forgiveness Is a Weapon” (due Jan. 3). Frontman Dustin Morgan, the longtime bassist in L.A.’s moody shoegazers the Autumns, insists, though, the album is more about relationships, and while pop mythology does hold that love is a battlefield, it’s impossible not to visualize carnage on Archer Black’s cinematic excursions. Morgan, who has played with jazz notables Eldad Tarmu and Benny Golbinand and studied under composer Victor Vanacore, has teamed up with talented multi-instrumentalist Paul Cartwright (Tandemoro, et. al.), Autumns bandmates Madison Megna and Steve Elkins and violinist Jen Thomas to fashion an album with a post-rock sensibility and a chamber orchestra’s mettle. Scott Cronan’s gorgeous video for “Onward and Down” features actor Luke Barnett and Thomas … Radiohead, with strings and horns. Or Archer Black, heart aching, in the rockets’ red glare.

||| Stream: The non-album B-side to the “Onward and Down” 7-inch, “The Sounding”:

Photo by Steve Elkins