Robyn Writes

State of affairs – August 2013

Hey everyone!

Quick note about updates this month. TBO will be operating on a reduced schedule at the moment. We’ll still be updating Wednesdays and Sundays (when I’m less of an idiot and remember to update it) but there’ll be a bit less stuff – probably just one article at a time. The reason being that I’m currently finishing my masters degree and it’s crunch time with regards to my final project. That’s going to get handed at the start of September, so we’ll be back to normal and more by then!

Thanks a bunch, everyone, for continuing to support us. You’re all wonderful, beautiful people.

xoxo – Robyn

Review: The Lagan – Where’s Your Messiah Now?

The Lagan are an Anglo-Irish celtic punk / rock band from Kingston Upon Thames in the UK – and Co Down in the old Country. And this is their debut long player. And you basically get exactly what it says on the tin. Featuring such diverse lyrical subject matter as drinking, fighting, lapsed Catholic guilt, manual work, drinking, a long history of social and economic displacement, drinking, maids with nut brown hair, fighting, drinking, emigration to the USA, drinking, redemption in the next life, and drinking – these ten songs make no pretence or attempt to go beyond the traditional Irish tropes. And yes, of course it had to end with ‘Fields of Athenry’. But this is utterly, utterly impossible to dislike.

There’s an honesty and a joy – reflected in the liner notes that essentially say thank you for listening, we just did this for fun – that is infectious. Some tracks – ‘Same Shite Different Night’, ‘Sailing East’, ‘Sunny Day in Southie’ – are front and centre Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly celtic-P fare. And pleasingly spiky. The rest is a more mainstream-sounding proposition, including several simply arranged trad Irish folk songs. Think the Dubliners with full colour tat sleeves, flesh tunnels in their ears and slightly more frisky politics. And you’d be about there.
These boys are currently on tour – a tour which, perhaps predictably completely avoids the West Midlands. It does however cross Yorkshire about four times and hit Luton in the Autumn. I guess the promoters in the second city – which has ever floated on a sea of plastic paddies and proud canal diggers, and where every second person on the southside of the city claims at least part Irish descent – must be a bit shit. More fool them. Get this lot at the Irish Centre, the Castle or the Dubliner in Birmingham and you’d be guaranteed both a sellout crowd and a fucking riotous celtic-P up of epic proportions.

Ultimately, this is the musical equivalent of ten straight pints of liquid craic. Like Guinness served properly – ice cold and with a shamrock neatly played in the top – it slips down easily. And just over half an hour later, even when you’re cut to the bone and fighting in the car park, you’re still smiling.

4.5 out of 5 high fives!

Circle Takes The Square – Camden Underworld, 31/7/13

Hot on the heels of surprise release Consanguinity, Pariso’s set is rammed with storming new tracks plus a few of their older and deftly speedier material.  Despite their best efforts and plenty of perspiration from frontman Mario, the local band are met with a stoically static crowd that refuse to budge despite a torrent of riffs that should indeed lay waste to the room but are instead responded to with warm applause.

Full Of Hell are an altogether darker prospect.  Desolate and putrid, their version of hardcore takes the genre into some of the deepest depths of aural depravity.  A two minute blast of furious breakneck punk is followed by coruscating feedback: like sandpaper to the ears.  Vocals flit between dry-retching and wicked gurgles, the possessed frontman’s intense and disconcerting glare slowly surveying the room with nothing less than abhorrence for everyone within its stale confines.  Those down at the front are eager to react with that oh-so-familiar violent physicality, repeatedly denied by a band who seems to take much pleasure in descending into extended bouts of white noise.  A My Bloody Valentine style noise holocaust ends the decrepit proceedings, glitches from tortured circuitry adding to a pulsating bout of terrifying sound.  It’s decidedly unhinging- sending everyone in the room into a state of trance, feedback tearing at the ears and low end transferring tremors through everyone’s innards.  Surely amongst the most uncompromising and unsettling thirty minutes of grating music you’re ever likely to witness.

With many propping up the bar or merch stall, Code Orange Kids start their set to a rather sparse room. Unperturbed, they dive headfirst into their savage take on metallic hardcore, their bodies soon lurching with instruments thrashed around, taking the full brunt of each member’s furious display.  A potent momentum is soon built, the energy of both the band and a swelling crowd on an upward trajectory, physically manifesting in a pit that drags in more onlookers with each crushing chug, letting loose their ritualized gestures of violent abandon.  Guitarist Becca delivers her guttural banshee howls through a wall of sweat-ridden hair as the boys in the band commence the ritual of stripping themselves of inhibiting garments. ‘Liars///Trudge’ is one half savage dirge, the other an atmospheric foray into inner turmoil with Becca swapping her howls for hushed singing and allowing the pit dwellers to catch their breath as the rest of the Underworld stares in awe.  At the final track of set the band have whipped up an electric tension within the room, those at the front form a heap of flailing limbs as more reserved onlookers can’t help but headbang in approval.  As the zenith of intensity is reach the impossibly young four-piece pull one of the oldest tricks in the book: leave the crowd hungry with an abrupt and unannounced finish.  A mass of impassioned screams for encore go unanswered.

Tonight’s headliners Circle Take The Square return to the damp squalor of the Underworld after a nine year absence, taking to the stage under some simple but effective atmospheric lighting, emitting a cold beam onto each individual member.  The least visceral of the evening’s acts, Circle Takes The Square’s are an incredibly polished live entity- as to the demands of their progressive and intricate music where subtleties and dynamics need to be as palpable as possible to be affecting.  Tonight though, the band’s progressions become its undoing with their obtusely extended song lengths and overly long set time verging on over-indulgence.  Circle Takes The Square seem to be the antithesis of the uncompromising adrenaline-inducing abrasion that came before- their measured approach and instrumental digressions proving too much for the casual listener which, judging by the steady trickle of people heading for an early exit, makes up a sizeable portion of the crowd.  A gaggle of hardcore fans lap up the old ‘screamo’ songs and guitarist Drew’s schizophrenic preacher on barbiturates vocal style.  The band’s insistence playing exclusively new material for the first portion of their set may contribute to their lack of impact- especially as an eager gaggle down the front lap up songs from 2004’s As The Roots Undo. By the time they leave the stage the Underworld is only half full.  Their performance may be flawless but it lacks the grit and feral intensity that many in the crowd yearn for.

There is little doubt that the show is stolen by those plucky young Code Orange Kids, the only band who leave the crowd ravenous and baying to be brutalised further.  They prove themselves to be a vital prospect, and along with Full Of Hell’s hollocaustal tyranny they provoke a disconcerting emotional response that makes you feel alive, leaving Circle Takes The Square looking rather meek in comparison.

Review: CB6 – Succession

Recorded in just five days last year at Bucks University, Succession is a debut borne out of passion, frustration and dedication. All of these have come together to deliver a solid, confident release that will no doubt put the band straight on the radar.

Given CB6’s young age (although the band initially formed when they were 11), it’s heartwarming to see some of the most well loved musical trends of the early 00s sneaking into their music and blending in perfectly with a hearty 90s thrash influence and hardcore fire. There’s little hints of nu-metal all over the place, from the layered vocals in ‘Illusion’ to the heavily effects laden instrumental that is ‘Penny’, but when the boys need to throw down, there’s no doubt about it. Opening track ‘Perfect’ is a tightly wound riff fest and Ryan Monteith’s vocals, not quite a growl but not quite a shout, complement that well, and ‘Elephant In The Room’ is a complete mosh anthem. Not completely constrained by genre sensibilities, there’s a lot of melody infused throughout too. ‘Cold Season’ combines all of the best elements of CB6 in one glorious bitesized chunk, and in closer ‘Eye Of The Magpie’, the chorus is a complete game changer, displaying a keen and confident talent.

What CB6 do well, they do very well. But there’s an overreliance on chugging riffs and repetitive structure that really starts to rear its head by the second half of the record. The same Pantera-esque sounds begin to dominate the record, and while they’re great for a while, it definitely becomes tiresome. Perhaps Succession would have worked well split over two EPs instead of a single record where it would be less apparent, but even so, it’s a record that shows a lot of potential, and with some relentless touring, the band will be capturing the attention of hardcore fans all over the country.

3.5 out of 5 high fives!

Review: State Lines – For The Boats

Yep. This’ll be a Tiny Engines release then. All of their acts that I’ve heard so far (Dikembe, Desolate Peaks, Jowls etc) have the distinctive quality of being able to squeeze a lot of sonic action into deceptively short songs.
This, the second or “sophomore” full-length release by Long Island NYC’s State Lines – is no exception. Within the general confines of a sparsely-produced, 8-trackish sounding guitar / drums / bass formula – entirely reminiscent of fellow NYC outfits For Serious this time and Sneeze – this covers a lot of stylistic ground, while avoiding any filler. Now. Is it emo? Is it pop punk? Is it lo-fi? Is it post hardcore? Is it garage punk? It’s all of ’em. You’d be fairly fucked if you tried to file it under a single itunes genre tag. You get forays into all of these territories, and a few more. There’s a lot of good stuff going on here, and it takes a few listens to get it all, such as the nods to white boy hip hop (Shady Existence), grunge (Water Song – spot the Nirvana homage), straight acoustic (Where it’s Warm) and even Nick Drake-style folk (For the Ears).

I hear their debut release was a touch limp – bit too much moping and no trousers. Whilst there’s a ruck of emotional vulnerability on display here, there’s also backbone: deliberately sharp lyrical edges and snarly vocals that deliver some acid turns of phrase with absolute sincerity and, well, charm. And that lift matters comfortably clear of wet blouse indie guitar territory. Lyrically, this is a collection of simple little vignettes of post-childhood, pre-adult life in maritime US suburbia: tales of driving in your minivan (The Same Mistake); beaches covered in snow (Tuesday Morning); and of quietly missing the simplicity and expectancy of being a kid (Kids, Indian Burn). Snapshots of ordinary loss, failure to live up to expectations. That sort of thing. And very winsome it is too.

In all, these boys have crafted a long player with a maturity of sound that belies the angst and confessional subject matter – and the goofy outtakes slipped in amongst the actual tracks themselves. There’s a unifying theme woven in here, references to ships and that slipped in across all the tracks – it’s called “for the boats” for a reason. I’ve not worked out what that reason is, but this is no way detracts from what is an accomplished and stylish work of ultra-modern East Coast guitar music.

4 out of 5 high fives!