Labels: altinvillageandmine
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Murdock – definitely the best a-team character. HLSM – definitely wasn’t in the a-team, unless that was some secret name of BA Barracus or something. Also, Murdock have a Jackson 5 sample.
This is the best stuff I have heard from Murdock, though I must admit I only have about 2 other records with their stuff on. Still, this is the best stuff I have heard from Murdock! Two songs of top-notch emo / hardcore, with killer melodies and great vocals that are mostly screammmmmmmo! Then they have some singy bits. “Lifeline” is very Yaphet Kotto-esque, with rocking grooves and smart hardcore breakdowns … “We were only worlds apart, but never far away” … “Kill the Messenger” is a more brutal emo violence track – I didn’t know bands still played this sort of thing like this, it’s a kind of Eurich / End of the Century Party style massacre. And I love this messy sort of hardcore. Lots of speed and crunch, even a break down into urgent spoken vocals and a supremely melodic finale. Fuck me this is good. This band should do an LP. Murdock dedicate their songs to public servicemen who died on 11th September 2001.
HLSM start off with a scratchy electronica intro over a sample of a badly tuned radio. They are German by the way. After the intro is out of the way they settle into a pretty original sort of emo type band. Mostly spoken vocals (male & female) and an edgey mathy type song structure, with build ups and breakdowns. I am not really sure who to compare them to, there are elements of bands like Moss Icon, or more recent ones like Kolya, Drill for Absentee and so on. Overall, just simply pretty damn good.
Dang it, two great bands on one great 7″. Supersolid release.