Labels: Init
Review by: Andy Malcolm
I presume this will be the last ever song that Ten Grand release. Luckily it’s a fine note to go out on. “X-Tacy of Desire” is a moody emo song that gradually twinkles out of the blocks with a bass heavy prototype intro from the days of Indian Summer and Embassy, before the song builds up into a lumbering track with Matt Davis’ impassioned vocals being spilled out over everything. Lots of crying and desperation present here. The production means the vocals are hidden a bit behind the snaking guitars and a bit of distortion, but that doesn’t detract. The record comes with an insert dedicated to Matt, I am glad that this note was put inside this here record and it wasn’t just released as yet another record that for emo kids to hide away in their collections and forget about.
Meth and Goats have a go at being “the other band”, I am not familiar with them at all, but they make a good job of playing a kind of herky-jerky post-hardcore thing that recalls various DC stylings and something else that I can’t quite put my finger on, perhaps it is Bright Calm Blue. The first track moves smartly between momentarily downbeat moments and pulsing rhythms with relative ease, also throwing in a spoken vocal part over a breakdown that is very Bob Tilton-esque before it springs back into life with the words being venomously spat all over the shop. The second is also explosive with angry shouting and a great groove. These guys are pretty emo.
Good release.