3 Styles. 3 Albums. 7 Songs Each.

In January, Atlas & Oracle kicked off their year with the first of 3 releases that followed a pattern: a collaborative song featuring another artist in the ska community, followed by a synthed-out cover song as a B-Side. These releases would later make up the dual albums Time Machine and Sad Songs With Happy Endings. But the band decided that two 7-track albums felt incomplete- for maximum luck, there should really be three. #Project777
Read more about the albums

About the Band

Atlas & Oracle has a sound that’s difficult to put into words, maybe because there are no two songs in their catalogue that sound alike. They pushed boundaries last year as the only band in history to take the guitar out of ska, and now they’ve putting it back in- but with a spin that’s just as unique as before. Having released two albums with no guitar, they figured it was time to release an album with no synths. The twist? Their uniquely wide set of influences and the fact that they’ve released it by surprise, with no singles and no prior promotion.
Read more about the band

More About the Album

Project 777 is an experiment in genre-bending, and potentially even genre-creation. Across three albums, A&O explores countless styles, divided up into three umbrella categories: synth ska covers, ska-punk originals, and hybrid collaborations. The distinguishing characteristic of each album is the balance of synths and guitars. In the covers, there are no guitars- in the originals, no synths- and in the hybrids, a mix of both.
 
The most recent album, Greed and the American Dream (GatAD), released in mid-October. This mini-album of ska-punk originals came as a complete surprise, even to those closest to the band. They had spent the summer releasing Sad Songs With Happy Endings and Time Machine, and had seen an increase in exposure due to high-profile collabs like Flying Raccoon Suit and Common Sense Kid. That whole time, they were also working on new material.
Anyone who listens to all 3 albums will be able to tell that dropping the synths was not a radical departure for the band. In a way it was something they spent the year building towards, and their unique songwriting still shines through. Songs on GatAD weave through their influences, paying homage to numerous contrasting styles throughout the album but also within each song.
 
Lyrically, the focus of this album is the disappointing structure of American work life. It shines a much-needed light on the struggles of the American worker, the greed that’s weighing us all down, and the legacy that we’re leaving, both as individuals and as a collective. True to its ska-punk roots, the album skewers a system that doesn’t work for everyone, and hypothesizes that it never has.

More About the Band

Atlas & Oracle joined the online ska scene during the summer of 2021, and since that time they have been taking on more and more influence from modern bands. Originally drawn to ska by the likes of Streetlight Manifesto,  Big D & the Kids Table, and Mad Caddies, by the time they were writing their debut album, their influences were grounded in a previous era.
 
When their debut album was written, no one in the group knew a guitarist, so Jubilee was released without guitars. It was through this limitation that their original style of “synth ska” (ska-pop where the synths are directly playing a ska rhythm in place of guitars) was developed. They would explore this sound on their first album, and develop it further with their covers album Time Machine.
 
So synths have always been an integral part of the Atlas & Oracle sound, but Greed and the American Dream seeks to dispel the notion that it’s all they know how to do. Having grown up listening to all varieties of rock and punk music, the band had an urge to pull together a ripping series of guitar-based songs to balance out all the electronic elements.
The band was formed in the early stages of the 2020 lockdowns, when physical distance seemed insurmountable and electronic communication was at peak utility. Members of the band sent sheet music and recordings back and forth or met up individually to record, and to this day remain in different cities. Still, interest is growing in a live performance, and A&O intends to rise to the demand.
 

Press for Atlas & Oracle

8/18/23: Atlas & Oracle – Sad Songs With Happy Endings + Time Machine [Left of the Dial review]

7/14/23: Album Review: “Sad Songs with Happy Endings” by Atlas & Oracle

5/16/23: Ska-Pop Collective Atlas & Oracle Release “Violins for Violence” and The Cure Cover As Charity Singles in Support of The Trevor Project

4/27/23: Video Premiere: Atlas & Oracle “Fade Away”

3/27/23: Ska, Punk, and Other Junk (Mar edition)

1/30/23: Ska, Punk, and Other Junk (Jan edition)

12/16/22: The Music Shelf Top 10 Albums Of The Year

11/8/22: Atlas & Oracle Debut Music Video For “Walls Come Crashing”