Labels: self released
Review by: Andy Malcolm
I had been hearing good stuff about this band, and coincidentally enough heard their MP3s for the first time today, a nice introduction. Itch (who do not have fleas, let that rumour be stopped right here) are from Yorkshire, and have a sound very akin to departed UK bands such as Spy vs Spy or the Green Acre. These 4 songs are full of melodic and jangly guitars that twist and turn in a joyous fashion. Stop-Start! It’s that old mid-west aesthetic, although cleaned up a touch and not quite as endearing to me as certain other bands in that style. The vocals are typically off-key and get the whine on strongly much as you’d expect. Sometimes they scream! I do find the singing a bit piercing at times but they tend to do the business. Each track meanders for around 4 minutes plus, finding it’s way from the jangly quiet moments into suddenly jazzy rhythms and then exploding into big melodic rock outs. I particularly enjoy the surge in the opening track before it dwindles away prettily. Good stuff. The song structures are impressive, the time-changes never jar and they flow well from the softer moments into the loudness, which not all bands that try this sort of thing ever achieve.
This is a good solid effort by a band that is obviously sure of the sound it wants, and does it well. I think a lot of people would be into this, personally I prefer a slightly more mid-west take on this style where the vocals aren’t quite so prominent (ROCKETS AND BLUE LIGHTS!), but personal preferences aside I think for they do a really good job with the variation and would be fun to see live. This demo is actually free to get hold of, so if you are after some powerful indie rock stuff that successfully does something different to what pretty much everyone else is doing in the UK ‘scene’ lately, then you have no excuse not to get it.