Labels: No Idea Records
Review by: Andy Malcolm
No Idea knows emo like no-one else at the moment. Which kind of surprised me when I discovered this initially, cos I thought they just put out some butt kicking emotional melodic hardcore like Hot Water Music and Clairmel and stuff. But then I understood when I got the Bread compilation CD and I learned about great bands like Moonraker, Still Life, Car versus Driver and Floodgate. And then I got this release because I want all of I Hate Myself’s records. I played them first and was impressed, then I flipped it for Twelve Hour Turn. Then I fell in love. Oh my god. Just listen to those plaintive notes being plucked from the guitar, nod to the swaying rhythm and sit back. It’s just warming up. A couple of minutes in, the louder guitars crash in, and then…and then, the strained pain of the vocalist, backed up by some of the most awesome screams that have ever been submitted to record. Twelve Hour Turn are a band with a firm grasp on what can make an emo band great; a blend of quiet, perfect, beauty and powerful, dischordant self torture, straddling the gap between the old and the new to wonderful effect. That jangly start to “Corvette”, oh my god. I guess this band are like some crazy screamo mix between Christie Front Drive and whichever band you choose to pick that used to scream, cry and play complex hardcore – say, that’d be Still Life.
Getting back to I Hate Myself, on this recording they contribute some really slow songs that do something different with the SDRE influence. The magnificently titled opening song “Fred Mertz was most likely a bad poet and a pervert” lopes a long amidst some guitars that crash slowly, like waves breaking on an empty beach. It’s subdued, and then there are occasional breaks in the lull as things are cranked up a level. Monotone vocals break into lung emptying shouted singing for the louder parts. I guess it’s rather like Sunny Day slowed to 33 speed and then made heavier. Sort of. Other songs like the cynical “Song For All The Young Casanovas and Casanovettes” get a bit more melodic and driving at times, but I Hate Myself’s songs remain powerful throughout. All this adds up to some of the best emo rock you’ll track down right now.
Oh, and cos it’s on No Idea your record is enclosed in the most beautifully constructed packaging, covered in strange bits and pieces and lovely, difficult to read, cursive ’emo script’. Latest pressing is on green vinyl.