This Indie 4 piece from Glasgow weave beautifully textured acoustic guitar & piano amongst unexpected beats. An immediate influence that springs to mind is James at their peak, in the way the songs build, reaching a great crescendo while keeping the distortion at bay, relying on the sheer tunesmithery to bear the brunt of the momentum, and it bears it well, it must be said.
Even during some dark lyrical content, they never get whiny or
shoegazey, and stay vibrant.1st track Where pieces join (where they fall apart) opens with a classic guitar & vocal part before the drummer brings a blistering broken beat in. Chorus vocals soar up an octave at very opportune moments, while a violin cries in sympathy. The drums across the whole CD are excellent, really carrying it along with a speedy shuffle. A lot of the beats wouldn’t be out of place being dropped into a mellow junglist choon. The only time the beats veer into traditional rock patter is midway through track 2 - Souvenir a haunting lament to lost love. “Are you trying to leave your mark? You’re going to leave your mark on me” is the chorus – simple but it certainly does leave a mark. A very poignant piece.
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Track 3 - Aim Steady Fire is a violin, piano & vocal led track, with delicate fingerpicked guitar & occasional snare snaps, before it takes on symphonic overtones – sweeping in the violin, building, building & hitting into a corker of an ending. Definitely very James, & if you dig them, track this down. I think you’d be hard pressed to dislike it.
The only mild criticism I could level at it is that sometimes I feel the vocalist doesn’t sound confident enough. Although his performance is blatantly supposed to sound understated, there are moments where it just doesn’t carry the track. Although all is forgiven when he brings it up an octave, which he does wonderfully every time. Cracking.
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