Pax Indigo - It Rained Blue - Tape (2013)

Labels: Youth Camp
Review by: Andy Malcolm

This one turned up in the post with a note that mentioned that it had only just occurred to them to send one to us for review.

C-Zine Rating: 0/10

Just kidding.

This is seriously good. Pax Indigo deliver one 8 minute song and one 5 minute song, and they play down in the dumps emo. It sort of reminds me of super early Christie Front Drive filtered through I Hate Myself, with all slowed down chuggy melodies and sorrowful guitar melodies. The vocals are at times hoarse and grumpy, then distant and lost amidst the sound. And we’re only half way into the 8 minute song, and I am gently swaying in my chair, (admittedly I have had a couple of beers but what’s a guy to do?), wondering where this will go next. There’s still 4 minutes to go and it’s swooped and soared plenty already. They kind of kid you a bit around 6 minutes when the chugs get all bouncy like Hate Game era Hot Water Music, but that seems to just be a bit playful as they get plenty mopey again soon. The second track, “œIt Rained Blue” (fucking emos) is perhaps a touch more straightforward and 3 minutes less long. For some reason the vocals now remind me of grumplord Thomas Strawbridge (Marshall Teller et al), although they are not half as growly.

For a first thing, this is dead impressive. They might be trying a little too much to find their sound, doing 90 different things in a song but who is gonna fault a band for being excited about what they are doing and trying stuff out? Me probably. But not here. Top work Pax Indigo.