21st Century Action Rock: file under post-punk, indie, math rock.

11 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Math Rock



Details:
Four years after the demise of post-punk band Staynless, guitarist/singer Christopher Wark returns to rock music. After assembling a crack squad of instrumentalists: drummer/singer Bradley Bean, and stunt bass operator Michael Brandon, Christopher has feverishly and methodically pieced together his monolith from a brain catalogue of fragmented sounds.
Every was detail meticulously analyzed and tested to produce the greatest output of rock action attainable by three human inputs.
The result is a brilliant onslaught of precision-wound 21st century action rock.
Arma Secreta's self-produced full-length album "A Century's Remains" was recorded in multiple sessions and locations over the last year, despite numerous obstacles, and life threatening setbacks.
National in-store release date August 29 2006.

A L B U M R E V I E W S :
Arma Secreta, the Memphis-based trio, slay in the good old fashions of At The Drive-In, Mars Volta, Bullet Train To Vegas, etc. Wildly intricate drums, thunderous guitar, rolling bass lines, and no mercy. Massive, epic, cinematic post-rock. These guys play from the heart. Found them a few months back, listened the shit out of them, wondering why itâs taken me so long to suggest it to others. These guys tear it up. Do yourself a favor, and wrecka-check-check âem out. Jordan S. (Decoy)
It is a general rule in most forms of journalism that the usage of the first person is huge no-no. While music reviewing allows a little leeway in regards to the âIâ word, itâs still something that writers should use sparingly. Now that the groundwork has been laid, I got to be honest. Iâm stuck in the fucking past â 1990 to 1999 to be specific. To this day I am still stubbornly biased towards Midwestern post-punk from that era. Examples: Christie Front Drive, Prozac Memory, Back of Dave, No Knife, Drive Like Jehu, Boyâs Life, Giantâs Chair, Vitreous Humor, and on and on and on. So itâs difficult to swallow how twee-mo bands are spawning like guppies while outfits that harkens back to this era are all but non-existent.

Memphisâ Arma Secreta is a rare exception to this trend. On its debut LP A Centuryâs Remains, Arma Secreta shows that not only does it tip its cap to the past but also surpasses some of them, too. With blistering hooks and intricate melodies throughout, Arma Secretaâs songs donât just grab a melody and milk it for three minutes, but contain plenty of infectious shifts and transitions that push this disc past the fifty-minute mark. While A Centuryâs Remains is chalk full of memorable songs, itâs âTurin Styleâ that stands heads and shoulders above the rest. Running over six minutes, it has a chorus that will be churning around your head for perpetuity. It may be April, but A Centuryâs Remains is without a doubt one the best records youâll pick up this year. â David Lichius (The Daily Copper)

B I O G R A P H Y :
Arma Secreta, Portuguese for âsecret weaponâ, began in 2003. Their infancy was like most bands: no name, no direction in mind, just a guitarist and a drummer hashing out ideas in their precious spare time, and testing out their new rock relationship in whatever space they could find, which in this case happened to be the back of an office furniture factory in Memphis, Tennessee. And with every session came more ideas and more excitement about what they were creating, piecing together, and ultimately ushering into the world.

Feeling that sense of urgency that comes with too many ideas, not enough time, and future regret; the two agreed the music needed to be made, a band had to be formed. They converted the back of their space into what is now Missile Silo Studios, and got to work.

Nine months after the formation of this band, itâs very existence was threatened when Christopher (ex-Staynless) was diagnosed with cancer in December 2003. After surgery and months of recovery, Christopher, Bradley, and former bass player / mixing engineer Alex Zhort made a pact that they would not play live again until their record was finished. And that is exactly what Arma Secreta did. âWhen a doctor tells you that youâre dying, your priorities change pretty quickly. We all decided that touring was a distraction for us, so we holed up for nine months and focused on writing, recording and producing this record ourselves. It was an amazing process; with no pressure, deadlines, or label interference, we had the luxury of making this record exactly what we wanted, and there arenât many bands that can say that.â recalls Wark.

Recorded in various sessions over the course of 2004/2005, and notably the last rock record
(8 of 11 songs) tracked at Memphisâs legendary Easley-McCain Studios before it burned to the ground; A Centuryâs Remains is a painstakingly produced and meticulously arranged indie rock monolith. While ripe with hooks, this music is not pop, the songs on A Centuryâs Remains are smartly constructed rock puzzles; unpredictable, exciting, chaotic, and beautiful.
The meaning of the albumâs title is two-fold, as Wark explains, âthe album art is part of an aerial photo essay by the same name documenting the leftovers of a century of industry and progress; and as for the music, many of these songs evolved from fragments Iâve had in inventory literally since before the turn of the century.â

Since the addition of new bass player, Michael Brandon, in October 2005, Arma Secreta has focused on delivering action packed rock to show goers everywhere.
Appropriately dubbed by fans as âthree men doing the work of six,â with Bradleyâs blurry machine-like drumming, Christopherâs confounding guitar loop layering, and Michaelâs bass gymnastics; their live show is a sight to behold, taking audiences from whisper quiet anticipation to blistering waves of noise and frenzied power.
Arma Secreta is just coming off their Spring tour March-May 2006, and is now booking their Summer/Fall tour.


Web Address: www.armasecreta.us
Myspace: www.myspace.com/armasecreta
Purevolume: www.purevolume.com/armasecreta
Booking: Gary Crump -- gary@snaxmemphis.com