THE GOOD THE BAD – From 005 to 008 EP

Dave Keuning, of The Killers, has called From 005-008 ‘a two guitar attack on the senses…’.  Drowned in Sound have said The Good, The Bad are a band who ‘write great quality rock songs’, and we here at Call Upon the Author have to completely agree.
 It goes past in a blur of stunning guitar solos and by the time it’s over it successfully leaves your senses wanting more. It is nowhere near enough to leave the ears sated, yet to have more offered up on this EP might ruin such an exceptional experience.
  It’s an entirely vocal free zone, which has turned out to be great. It is a whole lot easier to get lost in the music without having somebody’s voice dragging you back to reality and actually it’s quite refreshing.
The first two tracks, 005 and 006, are brilliant; they’re fast paced, upbeat, similar to one another yet not too much the same, they’re relaxed yet repeatable. There isn’t really much that they’re not.
 007 and 008 are slightly rockier than the first half of the EP, offering more variety. Even though these two tracks aren’t as upbeat as the ones before they’re just as skilled. They showcase just how great The Good, The Bad are with their guitars and raises the bar they set at the start of the EP even higher. Hopefully, if things go extremely well, they will be around for a lot longer and produce many more tracks, just as enjoyable as the four on this EP.

DELORENTOS – You Can Make Sound

Their 2009 was turbulent, it had the cliché ups and downs and parts that they’d rather never happened. Yet without all of those things it’s quite possible that Delorentos, who hail from Dublin, never would have produced such an enjoyable album. They’re not the most amazing band ever, and given that singer Ronan has already walked out on them once they might not be together for a long time. But what they have done so far with their time together is promising.
‘You Can Make Sound’ opens with the gentle music of ‘Sanctuary’ which is an early indicator of just how good they can be. As the song progresses the initial gentleness evolves into a desperate undercurrent which is slightly overshadowed by Ronan, who matches the instruments stride for stride, creating something that effectively begins to grow on you.
Forthcoming single ‘S.E.C.R.E.T’ doesn’t disappoint either. It doesn’t grow on you; it attaches itself to you without warning. It’s the sort of track that has you singing along after a couple of listens. The only thing that really needs to be flagged up about this song is that it’s not overly different from ‘Sanctuary’, at least vocally it isn’t.
Towards the end of the album they reject the catchy songs that’ll be stuck in people’s heads for hours in favour of the slower, more haunting ones. ‘I Remember’ is beautifully performed but something about it is unsatisfying. Perhaps because it is such a contrast to the upbeat mood at the start of the album, or perhaps while his voice has been alright on every single song, it has never really exceeded that.
However despite these few flaws it is still a brilliant and worthwhile listen, and after spewing out the likes of John and Edward it’s good to know that the Irish are trying to redeem themselves by offering up Delorentos to the rest of us.

KRIS DREVER – Mark the Hard Earth

Kris Drever’s Mark The Hard Earth is a charming, folksy record that just has that much needed injection of variety. It’s not an attention seeking kind of album like most other records floating about, in fact it integrates easily into the background, not tangling the mind up in complicated instrumentals or key changes.
However because it is such an easy listen there are really only two songs that stand out and make the ears perk up, and as such it’s a shame to say that these tracks are the only two things that make the album worth listening to.
First of all there’s Allegory to describe it in one word it would be amazing. But one word is never enough. The excellent acoustic guitar sets a fast pace that Drever’s dulcet vocals successfully counter-balances. The female backing vocals add another dimension to the song as they merge seamlessly with Drever’s. Allegory is by far the best track on the album, the one that has to be listened to. The guitar never falters and neither does his voice.
Then there is The Banks Of The Nile, calmer than Allegory. This is perhaps one of the more complicated of the songs, lyrically speaking. It requires a bit of attention to follow the story but it is worth the investment. Again the guitar is faultless, the vocals are brilliant and the lyrics paint a wonderfully vivid picture.
Mark The Hard Earth is a nice album, good music for a lazy afternoon, yet be careful with it. Drever may have varied the tracks and there may be two outstanding songs, but that doesn’t stop the uncomfortable sense of tedium from settling in after a while.

THE SO SO GLOS – Tourism/Terrorism

Despite the facade of catchy and upbeat punk that blares out, Tourism/Terrorism gets tedious. At first it’s not entirely clear if this has anything to do with the music or the vocals, by the time Throw Your Hands Up comes along however, it becomes blindingly obvious that it’s not the music but Alex Levine’s strained voice. He adds a painful quality to the otherwise alright tracks.
In small doses the songs are good, but listening to them one after another with Alex’s constant vocals it gets a little grating. For instance on Isn’t It A Shame (to which it’s tempting to reply ‘yes, yes it is’) his strange warble smothers and dominates the song. Not so likable after all of the other tracks yet if it was to be listened to out of context of the album it’d be quite quirky, nice, enjoyable even. It’s kind of the same for My Block, the opening to the track is promising and catchy, it sounds good. That is until Alex blurts out the first line in an incoherent mumble. Again listen to it by itself and it is rather enjoyable.
Tourism/Terrorism is alright, it’s not particularly outstanding, there’s nothing too special about it and despite the complaints it’s good, just not that good.

ROBIN JAMES – Saint Jude

There are two things to note down about this one. Firstly, despite the very feminine sounding vocals Robin James is actually a guy, and secondly the best way to enjoy ‘Saint Jude’ is to simply not put it on. Seriously, it’s 32-minutes of life that are better spent on something more productive like watching paint dry or rounding up every possible copy of this CD, throwing it on a fire and watch, satisfied, as it burns. Each and every song, from St Jude to Love Song is full of the same whiney tones and the same pitifully quite guitar. Unsurprisingly the title track is depressing, helped leaps and bounds by its raw, unedited quality.
On the last track, ‘Lullaby’, Robin sings “…go to sleep now baby” and you know what, it’s hard to ignore him, the temptation to just close your eyes and drift off is almost overwhelming, but what’s the point, since ‘Lullaby’ is at the tail end of the depressing, seemingly everlasting storm, it would be a shame to not quite reach the finish line.
It smacks of arrogance and pretention that for his debut album Robin attempts to convey more feeling by recording straight to tape so that he cannot edit even if he wished to. The over confidence that he obviously has in his ability puts a whole lot of expectation on ‘Saint Jude’ that it just doesn’t live up to.
However the lack of editing is where the appeal lies. It is just man and his guitar, untarnished and pure. Not touched by complicated synths and crashing drums, instead breaking away from them in favour of simplicity. Yet, at least with other men and their guitars they had the decency to entertain their audience; at least they actually created songs that were not only fun to listen to but also as enjoyable the tenth time round as they were the first.

THE VICTORIAN ENGLISH GENTLEMENS CLUB – Love On An Oil Rig

A complete patchwork of an album, no single song is the same. They seem to draw on influences from Siouxie & the Banshees, The Cure, The Cult and even, to an extent, System of a Down. Yet while they take something from each of these bands, they are nothing like them. Love On An Oil Rig is so completely unique that it’s hard to compare it to anything.
Upon hearing the title track it’s easy to mistake this release as a ridiculous, outlandish and perhaps an ambitious statement, yet the almost tone deaf battle of supremacy between drums and guitar is just the start of a very experimental and a very promising journey.
After forty-seven seconds of pure obscurity, Love On An Oil Rig swiftly establishes itself as an eclectic, unpredictable collection of music. Whether you want to or not you’ll find yourself tapping your feet in time with the irrepressibly catchy backing vocals and continuous beat of bass and drum of ‘Bored In Belgium’.
However where some of the songs are absolutely amazing and are perfect examples of the band’s sheer creativity, some of the other songs fail to compare to the high standard set at the beginning of the album. ‘Worker’ while not musically inept is rather tame and unsatisfying and since the main body of the song is in fact the word ‘worker’ quite repetitive.
Thankfully it’s not long before V.E.G regains their momentum, clawing their way back up to the standard of the previous songs and surpassing it. Although not as overtly insane as other tracks of the album ‘I Say What I See’ is just as memorable and just as capable of claiming a place in the never ending cycle of your thought process as the insistent beat persistently batters against your ear drums.
V.E.G waft between genres, always moving from style to style and genre to genre. It seems a shame that they haven’t settled on a style that isn’t purely themselves yet. But maybe, just maybe that’s where they belong, floating ethereally between the boundaries of music, gingerly pushing until they blur all distinction.

DJ /RUPTURE & MATT SHADATEK – Solar Life Raft

This is bizarre, in fact it’s completely and utterly peculiar, but that is what makes it so spectacular. It’s a complete mish mash of things that shouldn’t work, but it does. It’s not always a delight to the ears but sometimes it is… sort of. DJ /rupture and Matt Shadetek have decided to look outside the box and record something that nobody would really expect.
‘Space Cadet, Strength in Numbers’ and ‘For the Souls’ have an oddly relaxing effect despite the rather disjointed quality to the music, which, as tracks on a dance album, might not be the best thing and listening to them you can picture a scene of people in a dingy little club high on some sort of drug or another swaying or perhaps dancing a little too enthusiastically.
Gradually more of a beat is thrown into the mix, although it’s hard to hear exactly where since, like most dance tracks, there doesn’t seem to be much difference to distinguish between the end of one song and the start of another.
But just as it starts to become a little bit predictable something quite unusual perks you up a bit. ‘More Pets’ is a poem written and read by Caroline Bergvall but mixed by DJ /rupture and Matt Shadetek and even though it can proudly take its place amongst this collection of avant-garde tracks it’s beaten swiftly to the title of weirdest recording by ‘Mothertounge: Pt1’ which starts off as a totally odd remix of Nico Muhly reciting the alphabet at an amazing speed and evolves into something else entirely.
Again it is quite disjointed and unorganised, as if they found these tracks all over the place and haphazardly threw them all onto one CD, but what the hell, go listen to it and enjoy it, it’s not often you get something that takes you all over the place, it’ll make a nice change from most of the other albums out there.

ANAVRIS – Eleven Eyes Of A Simple Man

This four track delight from Scottish band Anavris is definitely a grower. It’s an easy captivating listen and displays their talent quite thoroughly. The opening track ‘Sometimes You Just Can’t get Rid’ is an addictive track reminiscent of Fightstar that swiftly beckons you to give the CD a second chance.
To be honest it is a shame that the second chance is needed. On first listen it just isn’t that impressive and you swiftly move on, leaving this little piece of treasure behind. That is, of course, until something tells you to pick up the CD again and take that unfortunately much needed chance. A chance that you will not forget or regret.
There are things that just went unnoticed the first time, like the wonderful blend of their voices and the depths of the songs. Whereas it might not have been before, the closing track becomes astounding. It begins so quietly that it would have been hard to guess the dramatic and powerful potential it fulfils. It builds up slowly, introducing more layers to the song, passionate vocals and even throwing in a few stringed instruments. Everything is in there, and if you listen closely you might even hear the kitchen sink rattling along.
It takes you on an enjoyable ride and despite it not being one of the best listens of the year it’s still one to be remembered.

FLOOD OF RED – Leaving Everything Behind

It’s never nice putting a CD on to play hoping that it will bring something new and exciting to your life, only to have that sparkling anticipation crushed by the first line of monotonous and frankly uninteresting vocals.
Sometimes the hidden gem on an album is the slow song that has been smothered and tarnished by the fast paced, upbeat tracks that have sped off far into the distance and eventually onto a shelf where they will be labelled as the hopelessly over played. On this album that is not the case. There doesn’t seem to be any fast or slow paced songs, only agonisingly mild lyrical bores.
Every now and then there is a half hearted attempt to produce a somewhat exhilarating track as if to say: “thank you for putting up with us this far” but even they don’t put up much of a defence for the album. It’s on songs like these that the vocals and instruments gradually build up and build up and build up and… nothing, the song ends and the wait doesn’t seem worth it.
To be fair the whole album seems rather depressing which, in small doses, is fine, but that’s all the lead singer’s voice is suited for. Anything happier or faster and he might just lose that terribly depressing voice.
If you’re after something vaguely exciting to get your mood up consider this a friendly warning; this album is neither exciting nor uplifting and, unless you like repetitive albums, once you’ve heard the first couple ofnsongs there’s no point in continuing your journey down the track list.

THE CHEMISTS – Theories Of Dr. Lovelock

‘Theories of Dr. Lovelock’ is a collection of very catchy rock songs from The Chemists and considering it’s their debut album it is rather impressive. Actor Richard E Grant immediately captures your attention when opening the album with his ominous vocals, and The Chemists quite successfully keep a hold of it throughout the CD.
Their single ‘Milk and Honey’ seduces the ear into a false sense of security, giving the impression that this is just another typical rock album, all show and no substance. But by the time you reach ‘Radio Booth’ this theory has very nicely been blown out of the water. It’s not all about showcasing their talent with in your face guitar riffs or impressive vocals that don’t really mean anything, sure that’s a part of it, but there appears to be more depth to it. Okay so the concepts of some of the songs are a bit obscure, like a super model being good at wearing clothes but nothing else, but what’s more intriguing than the slightly whacky?
There isn’t the sense that they have taken themselves too seriously in fact it all seems to be rather light hearted. It’s this attitude that comes across in the last track of the album ‘Toxic’. Recognise the title? Yeah, on their debut album, The Chemists took the risk of giving the Britney hit a rock makeover. Just like the rest of the CD it’s a catchy track but it fails to have the same impact that the original did.
It is a comfortable debut and the potential it exudes promises the listener that there will be more music of the same calibre form this band.

check out The Chemists at: www.myspace.com/thechemistsuk