ninehertz

Sleepy At The Drive-In soundalikes calling in at category post-rock. Just because you do not sing does not make you post-rock by necessity.

Or whatever, it’s a label, and labels are constantly get watered down. All words are changing all the time, we constantly redefine and recycle our language. Music is a language too, and in these times of economic austerity perhaps we should be recycling our genre labels and our sounds too?

These guitars, I think they come from ATDI as previously stated. Perhaps they aren’t working right because they sound a bit slowed down. The organ, well at the start of the album it sounded like a dodgy Velvet Underground rip, Sister Ray with the teeth knocked out. Sound defanged.

Everything is very tinny, all guitars and organs and cymbals and snares. Bass, beyond kick drum, you’re in there somewhere, a shadow behind meandering melodies that are fine but familiar, inoffensive yet lacking true grace or originality. Then the chugging bit of minor distortion, the chiming and clanging guitars, yep yep, sounds like something I’ve heard before. Awfully like one listened to a lot of karaoke recordings of that whole American Guitar Sound sweeping through the 00s. You might want to call that sound post-hardcore? Well, it’s here, reused once again.

Martial drums building to a break, I found that for 90p in Oxfam. Picked up these old Seafood guitar lines for a right bargain at a car boot the other week. S’good right? Yep yep. Been here before. I’m always out for a good deal. Got these old hooks up in the loft, thinking of flogging ‘em to Hooks 4 Gold. Whaddaya got? Oh that quiet interlude bit, where the drums drop out? Nah got one of those the other week. Whatever whatever. The gaping boredom waiting like a crocodile in the muddy waters of mediocrity. Loud soft loud. Wailing guitar up in the background, you know, the warbling swell, ‘cos that’s right epic.

Maybe our young economical environmentally concerned friends in Amp Rive, hailing as they do from Italy, are ignorant to the wider musical paddling-pool we all dip our toes in. Unlikely, and that would be to do them a disrespect. We’re on the internet here, and I downloaded this press copy off it, and the band and their label are working on it, so a wider awareness of music should be assumed.

This is not bad, the point must be made, what Amp Rive do is fine. Just overly familiar. Not much is done to separate themselves from other operators in their respective niche. But it bores these old ears to tears. Think of that, ears running with tears. That’s an odd image.