Labels: Specialist Subject
Review by: Sean Haughton
pale angels is a transatlantic project featuring members of static
radio, the arteries, and however many million bands the drummer from
the ergs! has been in in the past ten years. it’s certainly a
misleading pedigree as the trio’s debut LP ‘primal play’ leant more
towards a reverb-heavy version of ‘open your heart’ by the men, or the
more hooky nirvana songs. probably my most hated trend at the moment
is this dodgy appropriation of “grunge” culture by baggy shirt
hardcore lads suddenly growing their hair out and discovering a
soundgarden single, a trend that seems to be occurring everywhere right now, so
if you’re approaching a nirvana reference with a raised eyebrow i
don’t blame you. thankfully, i’m happy to say pale angels stray far
from sounding like some kind of godawful bush/silverchair alt-radio
hybrid.
this release being a live session, it’s a little more rough around the
edges and harder to make out than the album. the opener and closing
songs really stand out here (‘just faces’ kind of sounds like if you
put a particularly banging toys that kill song through a space echo),
even if the live recording’s blown-out sound sometimes threatens
overwhelm the songs a little too much. i would imagine these songs
will end up given the proper sonic treatment later down the line on
some sort of LP. bonus points for the cover of ‘crazy rhythms’ by the
feelies, which had me actually go and listen to the feelies and
discover a really great band. i’m listening to ‘only life’ as i write
this now! a good (and brief) taster for whatever this band have
planned for the future. if anything, you should be impressed with the
level of commitment when most people can’t keep a band running in
their own city.