Labels: Substandard
Review by: Alex Deller
I didn’t particularly know what to expect with this record, it being yet another blind buy. Thought it was going to be yet another emo-screamo record to add to my overflowing collection, but instead I’m treated to seven bursts of gruff melodic hardcore, which brings immediate and not undeserved comparisons to the earlier days of Hot Water Music, i.e. before they descended into utter tosswank. Though I’m usually not best pleased with bands who unabashedly wear their influences on their sleeve (or, in this case have knitted a whole damn cardigan out of them…), Box The Compass manage to make a damn good fist out of what I considered to be a played-out genre, writing life-affirming spurts of energetic hardcore that should make their mothers proud. The obvious HWM influences are combined with the urgent brevity of the the first Twelve Hour Turn LP, using staccatto riffs and choppy dynamics to great effect and subtly urging the listener to pretend his or her bed is indeed a trampoline and not a breakable piece of bedroom furniture. A swell little record and a glowing recommendation that surprises even myself.