Labels: self released
Review by: Oli Saunders
Drowned Out had passed me by until recently when I downloaded one of their songs on a compilation that Hey Presto! put out. I found it most enjoyable and quickly investigated them further. It turns out that they played gigs from 2006 to 2008 but then split up. This record is their discography, with their final 5 songs contained on the 7” and all their songs put onto a CDr. It’s a really nice and simple package with lyrics and a list of gigs they played printed onto recycled paper. It’s self released, limited to 200 copies, and it’s essentially the perfect way a band could end things. Having said that, it now transpires that they have recently agreed to play a gig at the end of this month and could end up writing new songs, so keep a look out if you do end up giving this a listen and like it.
Just listening to the 7”, my thoughts are that this is some pretty decent Aussie emo. It’s rather mellow, with the instruments grooving away hypnotically without ever getting that fast or abrasive. There’s only one guitar but it does a good job with mainly simple but effective riffs, as does the bass which keeps everything intact. There are some really good basslines and some aspects remind me a bit of early My Disco recordings – just in the way that the bass is really powerful and the guitar plays around it. I never give enough credit to the drumming in my reviews as I find it more difficult to analyse, but it sounds pretty spot on to me here too – overall the instruments make a really pleasant sound. They don’t actually sound much like My Disco but one other parallel is that a few of the songs do seem to just cut out a bit unexpectedly. I don’t find this a band thing, it’s just noticable. The overall sound reminds me of a slightly more mellow Ohana.
As for the vocals, these are generally half spoken / half shouted over the top. If you listen intently you can easily make out what they are saying. They are used quite sparingly, often there are long periods without. The first song ‘A Matter Of Consequence’ is probably my favorite on here – it’s a bit faster than the others which satisfies my tastes. ‘Joke’s On Who’ has a similar sound but more of a build up into the vocals. A couple of the others have nice build ups too but remain more mellow. Giving the CDr a quick play shows that the other songs the band wrote have the same sort of feel to them and also deserve your listening time. In conclusion, this is really good and if you are a fan of emo, in particular, Aussie sounding stuff, then defintiely check it out.
31st January 2010