It's not often an ambitious rock band can mix crazy with melody and pull it off with panache and wide appeal. A prime example is Everything Everything - the ultimate headache band one minute, and inspired melodists the next. Lichfield newbie's Venkman seem to have the secret formula that EE never quite concocted.
Debut single "Martial Law" mixes jittery guitars and a fiddly rhythm section with the playful yet disarming dual vocal of band mastermind James Sutton and lead vocalist Kate McQuaide. Yet despite the chaos, the tracks restrains itself just enough to carry a masterful pop melody and a gorgeous tapestry of vocal and guitar-peggios at its climax.
B-side "Tricking" is even catchier and speedier, at times bringing to mind Paramore with its earworm chorus, but these comparisons are shattered once ethereal pads and distant reverb-laden guitar lines creep in and blissfully wrap the track in a similarly tasteful tapestry as its A-side. In just 2 tracks, Venkman put more cards on the table than most bands would dare in 2013, and yet somehow pull off a more distinct and engrossing sound then most, if not all of their peers.
Expect a debut album to drop in Autumn. It's a safe bet that we haven't seen half of what Venkman are capable of.
FOR FANS OF: Everything Everything, Bloc Party, The Mars Volta
Showing posts with label Rock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rock. Show all posts
Thursday, 11 July 2013
Tuesday, 9 July 2013
London Grammar - Strong
In 2013, London Grammar provide a rare brand of unpretentious and unaffected atmospheric rock. It's a sound that has a timeless quality, one that distances itself effortlessly from the two-a-penny atmo-folk and alt. indie crowds. And the best thing is that, 5 songs down the line, there are no duffs - each one is an emotional knockout.
Of course this is heavily down to the phenomenal voice of Hannah Reid, which cannot be praised enough. Even bringing a heart and soul to a Disclosure track last month (a difficult feat - as great as the boys are, emotion is not their forte), Reid's voice carries "Strong" much in the way that it carried the impossibly but blissfully sparse "Hey Now". Whilst "Hey Now" sounded like a distant cry for help, "Strong" picks up where that track left off - yearning and desperate - but is much more confident. "I might seem so strong, I might speak so long, I never been so wrong" laments Reid.
Bit by bit, track by track, London Grammar are getting their message across, gradually breaking out of their withdrawn, mysterious shell. You can hear it in the music - more muscular and textured - in Reid's voice - stronger diction and confident phrasing - and of course, in the words. With each passing track that emerges, the band are gradually beginning to paint a clearer picture of what they are really all about.
FOR FANS OF: Massive Attack, Mt Wolf, Daughter
Of course this is heavily down to the phenomenal voice of Hannah Reid, which cannot be praised enough. Even bringing a heart and soul to a Disclosure track last month (a difficult feat - as great as the boys are, emotion is not their forte), Reid's voice carries "Strong" much in the way that it carried the impossibly but blissfully sparse "Hey Now". Whilst "Hey Now" sounded like a distant cry for help, "Strong" picks up where that track left off - yearning and desperate - but is much more confident. "I might seem so strong, I might speak so long, I never been so wrong" laments Reid.
Bit by bit, track by track, London Grammar are getting their message across, gradually breaking out of their withdrawn, mysterious shell. You can hear it in the music - more muscular and textured - in Reid's voice - stronger diction and confident phrasing - and of course, in the words. With each passing track that emerges, the band are gradually beginning to paint a clearer picture of what they are really all about.
FOR FANS OF: Massive Attack, Mt Wolf, Daughter
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