Labels: art for blind
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Ok, you’re sending a record for review. It is coming out as a 7″ yet you send it out as a CDR in a photocopied package. What the fuck is wrong with you people that send stuff for review sometimes? SEND THE REAL FORMAT. Not some half arsed fake version. I am so tempted to write a half arsed fake review, but that would do the bands a dis-service, and it’s not entirely their fault that the penny pinching promo company (named and shamed: I-SPY – if you are a band, don’t use them, they’ll send your record out for review without it’s proper artwork or in it’s intended format, this sucks) is so useless. Pfft.
Anyway, onto the bands. Rays of Helios were ok. They do a kind of arty post-hardcore thing that rocks back and forth on a groove. I guess they like some bands on Dischord that I am not really into, as I would be more likely to compare them to something like one of those post Giants Chair bands from Kansas like Volara. This grew on me. I wasn’t entirely into it initially but then I ‘got’ it a bit more. They are tight and rock out and don’t over jazz the pudding. Neato.
Airstrip One I had heard before, they did a solid 3 track demo and this track of twinkly indie/emo rock is a good stab at the post Spy vs Spy debut EP sound that a few British bands have gone for over the past few years. Their contemporaries would be bands like Long Live and the Green Acre, though they are much more melodically straight forward than those bands (in a Braid type way) and don’t have any jazz posturing. Which is nice. This is a good little tune, the vocals fit the style, neither too strong nor too wishy-washy, the normal flaws for singers of bands doing the mid-west emo thing. So yeah, good schtuff!