EP REVIEW: A Genuine Freakshow's free sampler!

Wow, a week just slips by hey?

Ok, so on monday I saw A Genuine Freakshow supporting The Northwestern at the Louisiana. Now the other two bands on the bill were pretty lame: Tripwires need to change chords more often than every 4 bars, and the Northwestern were just very bland (their insistence on having 3 guitars playing just crowds the sound and made it difficult to really hear anything going on. Also some dynamics would have been appreciated. Oh well.)

But after the show, AGF were handing out free samplers and I've gotta say, that it's pretty impressive stuff. The sleeve inlay touts them as "A seven-piece, experimental, post-everything pop bonanza". Now I don't know what the hell that's supposed to mean. I also take issue with the comparison with Sigur Ros, which I think is kinda off...

My personal soundbite? Well... "Jingly jangly indie guitars get the orchestral treatment and a proper drummer." That's close enough...

One thing I did note is the refreshing brevity of the songs. The 1st track, "We Are The Undercurrents", clocks in at only 1:52. In fact the total for the three tracks here is less than 10 mins! It's nice to see that the band are capable of condensing their ideas down to the essentials; pruning back the guff that other bands might leave in because its "progressive"...

The result is a focus on the song, old school style, where the orchestration revolves around and works to compliment a particular melodic idea. Know what I mean?

It's good stuff. Vocals are strong, production is tight, and the writing is innovative. If you're a fan of Guillemots, Soe'za or possibly "Silent Alarm" era Bloc Party then this band are well worth checking out when their debut album comes out (I'm told that may be some time in September). Expect a mention on this page, naturally!

Coming up: Gunna see Blackbud on monday, which should be fun. Also, a long list of albums I want to buy is building again. Expect Toddla T, Ebony Bones, Enter Shikari and if I suck it up and pay the £15 that seems to be the lowest price on Free Blood's singles amalgamation then that too!

Superdupermegalove.
Chris/Audio Bigot.
xx