Labels: art for blind
Review by: MH
This is a seriously good split involving two of my favourite bands from opposite sides of the planet. Plaids kick off side one and are up to unlucky “thirteen” now. It finds them on rowdy form right from the off with punchy angular riffing and a typically frenetic pace. Don’t be fooled by “fourteen” which deceptively starts off relatively calm by their standards but tempo changes jump in and it builds into another frantic barnstormer. No Action have a tall order in following that but nobody seems to have told them as they absolutely nail it with “It happened while you were asleep”. Soundwise it isn’t a million miles away from their track on last year’s split with Roger King and it’s as catchy and melodic as hell while still retaining that lo-fi nature. Another added bonus is some essential twinkle in the guitar sound towards the end. The first time I heard it I replayed it 5 or 6 times in a row and it might be my favourite No Action song so far. I need to throw in another reference to The Hated again here and they still have a DC sound in there while the melody is so strong. Their second track is an impressive and downbeat acoustic number called “Solar Steps”.
Plaids have hooked up with some mighty fine bands on splits over the past year or so and this might be the closest match so far soundwise. They are still very different with No Action’s sound having more of a melodic focus but what really separates these two bands from much of the current crop is that older 80s DC influence to their sound. This one couldn’t fail really and both bands have lived up to my rather high hopes when I’d heard they were getting together for this split.