Labels: No Idea Records
Review by: Andy Malcolm
This ones going to be sitting in my CD player for a while.
Clairmel’s split 8.5″ with Hot Water Music was one of my favourite pickups of last year, and I had been hunting for something more substantial by them ever since. At last my quest is over…
The ‘mel do punky, emotional hardcore with a teeny leettle beet of indie of rock too. So they sound a bit like maybe Texas Is The Reason with some occasional Get Up Kids type punk tendencies and also a bonus snip of crunching hardcore. But here is the rub – whilst a lot of bands that nod towards TITR/GUK are dull, Clairmel are absolutely amazing. For a more homegrown comparison, I’d hesitantly suggest that this is the direction Jetpak are heading in, but I wouldn’t like to say until I heard more new ‘pak stuff on record.
Most of the tracks blend in the stunningly cool jangliness of their indie rock influences, and work in the noisier material to perfection. The singing is totally emotional and strained, some of the best I have heard for this style of music. Just check how opener “El Jefe” starts out all polite, then builds into soaring, melodic emo-hardcore. Whoomp, there it is!
And Clairmel just carry on bowling you over with the sheer force and power of their music for the rest of the whole damn album. They have a huge sound that hits you again and again, especially when the songs are at their fastest, such as on the dashing “Small Wood”. And I wish I could be in a band so I could play the likes of the awesome chugging HC riff on “Billy Boil”. That must be so fun!
For perhaps the best experience of the album though, wait till the finale. The grand finale. The 10 minute wonder that is “Super Duper Pooper”. Interesting title! Anyway, it builds from a supercute janglefest of a beginning, gets a little faster and punkier for a couple of minutes, then starts to breakdown… for the final seven minutes. Highly relaxing, repetetive, soothing guitar washes over you lazily, an acoustic guitar joins the action, and another guitar wails and screetches in the distance. Then someone finds a harmonica. Wowee. I could listen to this all day.
Oh man, you should see the packaging too (guess what, this is on No Idea!) – It has like a tracing paper cover that is stapled over the regular CD inlay! V. creative. It just rounds out an all round tremendous release.