Well Wisher - "Well Wisher EP"

[7", Free Download]
Self-Released

Myspace keeps fucking people's music accounts up, and telling people they're from America when they're not. Besides, that accent won’t fool anyone!

Mellow-yellows Well Wisher are seriously beautiful. Leaning to the indie side a lot more, and being a very melodic and consonant band, the term “indiemo” which may or may not have ever been used is completely relevant right now. I saw the term on Last FM somewhere and doubted its practicality anyway.

This EP contains four tracks of seriously melodic, mellowed-out but very driving beauty, that lingers upon itself in a really nice way. While maybe there aren’t any stand-out tracks, each track is consistent in style and approach, and none ruin the flow or the “listening experience” if you will. And there’s a side of them that seems like they don’t take themselves too seriously, which is always humbling.

I don’t want to call this “nice.” It sounds wimpy to describe a record that way. But it is; it’s very nice. It’s down-to-earth but its quite profound too. Nice!

Rating: 7.5/10

Human Hands - "Demo"

[Free Download]
Self-Released

Something might actually blossom over here in rainy England soon. A nice little underground for emo and screamo is developing more and more. So here’s a relative newcomer.

Human Hands, I believe, hail from near Birmingham, or in the broadest sense from the West Midlands. As a fellow West-Midlander, I feel some sort of geographical connection with this band. After all, the Midlands is for the most part pretty working class and often ignored.

This four-track demo is for the most part a frantic affair of 80s style emo, for people looking for the next step after Rites Of Spring. The first three tracks are spasmodic and very nearly insane; melodies fly around the fret-board with liberal room for noise and occasional dissonance. And the demo reaches a grand climax with the final track “Without Warning” being a well-over-seven-minute-long epic, which given the appropriate level of studio attention could be tear-jerkingly powerful.

The vocals are noticeably dubious; despite the passion behind them, just now there isn’t as much prowess behind them. They work well in the more monotonic shout-like moments, but melodies often fall short and sound strained and struggled, which is more noticeable in the final track. But given time, these could develop, and besides, rawness and imperfections are welcome here.

Human Hands are more than capable musically, and I’m certain that more professional recordings in the future will take the band up a notch. And even though the vocals need work, this demo is still something England can be pleased with. My country will get better very soon.

Rating: 6.5/10

Dylan Bredeau/Ripshit - "Split"

[7", Free Download]
Spicy Soup Productions

Seven-inches are better than free downloads. I’d have much preferred the 7” for this. But duty calls. Or poorness calls. Whatever.

I started with Dylan Bredeau, who play pretty noisy post-hardcore/90s-style emo, liberally laying on the feedback and guitar noise during pretty intense tunes. That mixture of chest-tightening melody and pretty relentless volume blend perfectly, especially with the two singers’ straight-from-the-heart singing. An awesome band, and two songs that fare well against each other, with “I’m Still Looking for Jupiter” being a personal favourite.

Moving on to Ripshit after Dylan Bredeau is, if anything, ever so slightly disconcerting. Ripshit essentially play pretty straightforward hardcore, which is of course full of welcome aggression that hardcore can never lack, but possesses rather irritating, very high-end vocals, and an unfortunate blandness that could place them as one of the lesser interesting bands on a Tony Hawks game soundtrack. Well-executed but unfortunately doing nothing new, or anything for me unfortunately.

As a split, both bands don’t play too well off each other. Dylan Bredeau are indeed very good. But Ripshit’s bland hardcore makes this a tad forgettable.

Dylan Bredeau: 7/10
Ripshit: 5/10

Overall: 6/10

Chalk Talk - "The Food Chain"

[7", Tape]
L'oeil Du Tigre, Desordre Ordonne

Very rarely do a band come along these days who I think are genuinely amazing. Chalk Talk are one such band, and actually are the kind of band that reinstall my faith in life when I get negi.

“The Food Chain” EP is a multi-format release, with the tape and CD versions coming with some extra tracks to the 7” version. Either way, we start with the EP’s self-titled track, which is boisterous, beautiful, affirming and simply fucking amazing.

A clean, reverb-laden guitar sound, crash-heavy dynamic drumming, intricate bass lines and loud, forced and relentlessly passionate shout-singing all mould together into something else completely. It’s a sound people can have fun to, that people can party to, that people can cry to, that people can get over someone to, whatever. It’s just honestly fucking beautiful. “Marco Polo” is a personal favourite track.

With all that ass-kissing over, this EP is very near perfect. Save for the running time and perhaps a very slight slowing-down of momentum towards the end, I can’t say much else against it. Buy it. Immediately.

Rating: 9.5/10

Guillotines/Lost In Bazaar - "Split"

[Floppy Disk]
Diskette Etikette Rekords

As is the case with floppy disk releases, the washy tones of low bitrate music have to be tolerable to the ear. But I can’t imagine much bitrate snobbery in this underground anyway.

Kicking this disk off is Guillotines from Stoke-on-Trent, the vocalist being Jake Kent of Power Negi Records and the guitarist being Rich of The Madness of the Crowd zine. Their two sub-minute tracks are good songs, but a bit randomly thrown on to the split. “Everyone Loves a Piano” leaks frantic, chaotic melody, treading that line between subtly dissonant and fairly beautiful; a sound track. “Untitled One” is a much quieter, far more spastic track comprised of consistent atonality, that unfortunately sounds less imaginative than the first track and leaves you slightly bewildered about the last twenty-nine seconds of your life.

Lost In Bazaar from Turkey offer a single track, “Disposing Meanings,” clocking in at just over a minute and half. As is with anything I’ve heard from Lost In Bazaar, “Disposing Meanings” is absolutely beautiful; their dream-like guitar sequences are unique unto them, like they’re a dream pop band who took a bunch of speed. I honestly can’t get enough of these guys.

A nice, brief, awesomely-packaged floppy disk. But Lost In Bazaar win me over. I need to take a walk and be philosophical and cool now.

Guillotines: 6.5/10
Lost In Bazaar: 8.5/10

Overall: 7.5/10

"Trend, Hate, New Trend, New Hate"

Abhorrence in a green bin;
You clean that one empty
Tin out and throw it away.


The binmen take a while
By you, but you've got
That recycling plant
Near you. Once they've
Got that tin it'll be
Back to you in no time.


Look's like that time's
Around again; your tin's
Back and you can stick
All your shit in there
Again, that shit no
One cares about in that
Tin no one cares about
Again.


(C) Sam Hunt, 2010.