Labels: Gringo
Review by: Alex Deller
Been vaguely interested to hear Soeza for a while now, and here, as chance would have it, is their latest offering. Nine tracks of arty post hardcore that owes much to the likes of late Fugazi, June of ’44 and Smart Went Crazy but doesn’t content itself with mere imitation. Drums skitter between roving basslines and the jumpy strains of bright, jangly guitars, creating a sprightly backdrop for some homely boy/girl vocals (his: poppy, jiving and nonchalant; hers: brooding and soulful), all augmented by clever layers of extra curricular instrumentation, from overexcited brass to the wheezing organs present on the excellent They Glow At Night. Intriguing but never busy for the sake of it, chirpy but never annoyingly so, if there’s one slight snag to the Soeza experience (other than the fact that the intro to Length of Rivers sounds like the theme to some ropy 70s cop show”¦) it’s that they never seem to bust out of their meticulously polite restraint, keeping a tight hold of their hats rather than getting freaky once in a while or momentarily losing their shit. Nonetheless, it’s a minor quibble and one that’s easy enough to gloss over when the outing is as pleasant as this. Solid stuff, and well worth picking up.