Labels: Detournement
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Goodness me, this is an elaborate package. Not really seen anything quite so extravagant
out of the UK scene since, ooh, the Night and the City 10″. Anyways, enough of the fawning
over silkscreened fabric and onto the musicalness. Night and the City continue to impress
me, this is perhaps even better than what they were up to before – utterly frantic and hell
for leather emo-ness, with speedy vocals spat out all over the floor in mess of phlegm and
blood, melodic guitars thrased into oblivion, drums kicked all over the carpet. I guess you
could compare them to any one of a number of Gravity bands with a touch of Drive Like Jehu
to ice the Welsh cake. Chaos done the good way, I continue to be seriously impressed by
these lads. Only quibble is that the song perhaps out stays its welcome by a minute or so,
what with filling a side on 33rpm, and these guys know how to splatter so well that 3 prime
doses of 2 frenzied minutes would go down better with me, but hey… its barely an issue.
The Take have been around for quite some time, but I’ve never actually heard them until
now. They slice through 2 songs of tightly wound melodic hardcore, and there are parts of
the first song that for me recall Car vs Driver (I think its the urgency in the vocals).
Fast, powerful and much like a bludgeoning battering ram – “Ecks” is really fucking good. The
second song is slightly different, going for a catchier, melodic punk type approach with a definite Jawbreaker flavour, its solid enough but overall it pales next to
its brother song.