Atlas Engine - "When The Compass Resets... Part One"

Words by Zach Romano

Brooklyn’s Atlas Engine are roaring out of the pandemic with their fantastic new EP When the Compass Resets… Part One, out now on Favorite Friend Records. This EP, Atlas Engine’s first since late in the Obama era (!), is made up of four tracks and two interstitials that will form the first third of their debut album, which is set for release via two more EPs later this year. Through this cycle of songs, Atlas Engine singer and songwriter Nick LaFalce aims to reckon with his diagnosis with Lyme disease and its aftermath. In doing so, he also tackles issues endemic to our anxious age. The songs themselves are pretty great, too. 

For those of us following Atlas Engine’s releases over the past few years, there is a lot that will be familiar here: cinematic, multipart guitar-driven compositions that manage to be as hooky as they are sprawling, a locked-in rhythm section, and butter-smooth production and mixing (this time mastered by New Jersey’s Joe Lambert). However, the band has come a long way since 2016’s After the End EP: LaFalce and co. have fully embraced the electronic elements that were hinted at on 2018’s “New Constellation,” with Album Leaf-esque textures leading off “All I Want is Everything” and brain-tingling bleeps that could have come straight from Four Tet on the semi-interstitial “Alternate State.” There are also more voices here than on previous releases, with keyboardist Meredith Lampe backing up LaFalce on opener “As You Are” and taking a verse on “All I Want is Everything.”

When the Compass Resets… is ostensibly about a very specific struggle, but in the current moment, dealing the personal writ large and some grappling with bigger issues are unavoidable. “As You Are” ponders what it means to be “real” when surrounded by artifice, “Not Enough” takes a stab at gun violence, and “Modern Mind” gets meta about the (f)utility of the whole exercise of looking from our anxious present to an even more anxious future: “In the future we will stay,” sings LaFalce, “set to overanalyze.”

The songs and interludes on this EP (and eventually the whole album) blend together to form one continuous piece, and one of the most fun parts about keeping up with AtlasEngine over the last few months has been putting the parts together as they’re all slowly released (check out LAMR’s reviews of “Modern Mind” and “As You Are”). When the Compass Resets… Part One ends with the interstitial track “(Thoughts and Prayers),” but the note we are left on is more cliffhanger than resolution. The first track from Part 2 will be released in September, and we can’t wait to see how this next piece of the puzzle fits.

Stream the EP in its entirety below!

You can purchase When the Compass Resets… Part One via Bandcamp or stream it on Spotify. Keep up with the band by liking them on Facebook and following them on Instagram.