Labels: Topshelf Records
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Three songs here of post rock / indie. “Victim Kin Seek Suit” begins ponderously, snaking along slowly with rather wrought vocals before exploding into a noisy finale with spiralling guitars and boys shouting. It ends super abruptly. “Gordon Paul” is stripped down and again takes time to get going before it hits a bit with keyboards and shouting. And it’s short. They find their feet a bit more on the 6 minutes of “Eyjafjallajokull Dance” which bombastically launches out of the gate and into the guitar effects before slowing everything down again, into wobbly vocals and quiet pondering before surging off into a typically post rock ending.
These guys seem to be going for a similar thing to Empire! Empire! but this is much more post rock and substantially less emo. It mixes in a lot of elements that really don’t do anything for me, such as guitar FX, gang vocals and keyboards. It’s a lot less mature sounding than something like Empire, which also probably explains why I am not so into it. It’s experimenting with a sound that one could easily argue is in need of updating, but I don’t think this is the best way to go about it. I think this will appeal more to the new generation looking to stride out and distance themselves from what came before, which is an idea with plenty of merit, but for those of us set in our ways who know that post rock should have about as much to do with emo as a mosh pit, we’ll be passing on by.