ake a look at Atari Champ’s website and you will see a list of groups that they claim to be influenced by. There is the indie favorite Sunny Day Real Estate, the geek rockers-gone pro Weezer, and the seasoned druggie styles of Spiritualized. All respectable references, but one has to be a bit wary; more often than not, you have groups hiding behind their influences as an excuse for blatantly ripping them off. But after listening to Atari Champ’s Self-titled EP, you realize that these aren’t just "bands we aspire to sound like," they are peers.

Atari Champ is uncanny in their ability to take their contemporaries strengths and combine them into something equally powerful. When they say they listen to Weezer, you know it by the crunch and naïve glee in the guitars of "Mac." You hear many of the melodic tendencies, the interlocking guitars and the forward tone of Sunny Day Real Estate, though I prefer lead singer Paul Chesterton’s voice to Jeremy Enigk’s. The sound of the recording is very ambient and constructed, recalling some of the more effectively realized moments of Jason Pierce’s madness.

One reason the group is so potentially phenomenal is their unusual approach to intra-band democracy, no one voice is dominant. The subtle changes in the drumming are just as important as an explosion of feedback. This powerful group dynamic adds much to the overall vitality of the music. Everything comes across as very refined, thoroughly practiced and reflected upon, but it lacks pretension. You know, when listening, that the band had a lot of fun recording this music.

Opener "He’s The Astronaut" begins with a simple guitar motif. As soon as the simple pattern has played through once it begins to play again, but one slight moment after beginning the first repetition, the entire band jumps in. The drums lightly tap, the second guitar plays the main melody, and the bass doubles the second guitar. This simple technique is incredibly effective, catching me off guard on the first listen. The song is very appropriate as an opener, due to its buildups and slight changes, which set the mood for the rest of the EP.

"Mac" begins with a simple keyboard line, which is soon joined by a sparse groove laid out by the rest of the group. This skeletal keyboard line, which brilliantly avoids the melody going about the guitars, serves as our anchor for the song. No matter how far out the song gets, there is always that warm tone to come back to.

The effect used to imitate a CB radio in "30 Miles" is one of the highlights. "I’m all alone / with the road," the words echo out into nothingness, as the main vocals return to continue their lonely narration. A similar keyboard sound is used in this song, but it stays much closer to the group, which is reassuring in some way. The band stretches out a nice ending to the song, recalling Modest Mouse’s quasi-epic sensibilities.

At less than eighteen minutes, this EP provides an incredibly brief glimpse at the promise of Atari Champ. Atari Champ’s CD is available for purchase here.