Labels: Box Bedroom Rebels
Review by: Oli Saunders
Box Bedroom Rebels is a new label from Manchester which has started putting out small releases of records; this 7” is its second release and is limited to 100. The Static Cult put out a CD by The Faded Tapes in 2007 and this is essentially some of the choice songs from that CD put onto vinyl. It is great to see it on this format – the band and label(s) exude DIY to the max.
The Faded Tapes was Dane Chadwick sitting in his room, aged 17, writing layered and atmosphereic music. No vocals, just short emotional outpourings which often have a melancholic feel. ‘I Will Race You’ does in fact feel like a journey and it builds up and down. ‘New Song’ is a song which didn’t appear on the original CD and must have been written on a day when Dane had been rinsing Duster; I almost expect Clay Parton to chirp in on vocals as it plays. On the flipside ‘Like Scene’ is a relatively high intensity crash ridden song, almost sounding upbeat. ‘Little Baby’ is the highlight of the record, simple in nature but the sort of a song I can listen to over and over. It makes me start thinking about my failures in life. ‘We Got Old’ is then a final 30 second song which wraps everything up.
Very nicely packaged, albeit over the top in my view (do I really need a frisbee included and a bag of paper hearts?). The unresolved question, however, is why the hell is ‘Sleep, Dream’ not on this record? A song that utterly crushed me when I first heard it and which I still have as my alarm to wake me up in the morning. It is easily The Faded Tapes’ best song and would deserve a 7” all to itself. It’s a great shame it’s not on here.
28th April 2013