Labels: self released
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Cool, a tape! I didn’t know bands still made demo tapes, and that the CDR had become ubiquitous in this regard. So it’s good fun to see there are still bands out there that want to utilise the humble cassette. The brown paper handmade packaging is really nice too. Props to Quilt! Who appear to be from Swindon of all places, lummocks.
The first track, “100 Ways”, is definitely my favourite of the bunch – it’s a rampant hardcore effort, complex, melodic and hell bent on being quite fast. Combined with the angry vocals that are spat out with venom it brings to mind Dead Inside, or even early Books Lie. After such a good opening I was really looking forward to the rest of the tracks, but over the rest of the tape they take a slightly less exciting path – sounding more like early Small Brown Bike with plenty of choppy, melodic riffage and vocals that veer from gruff and shouted into sung now and again. The songs on the first side are in general much more to my liking than the second, where the melody and variation in the songs really shines through. The 2 songs on the flip come across as a lot more samey and less interesting. But hey, they are still not bad.
Overall this is a quality demo, and well worth checking out if you like that kind of gruffangry / melodic hardcore sound that labels like No Idea have a habit of releasing. Quilt are very accomplished, and are well capable of putting out a ‘proper’ release I reckon. I also think one of the members of the band is a teacher (or their parents are!) because the note that came with it appears to have been written on the back of a lesson plan. Punk rock teachers go!