Ask and you shall receive. After four frustrating days with no news, f**k all to write about and a feature about a Lego band (of all things!!), we’ve finally been pointed in the right direction. One ‘discreet’ cry for help on Twitter later, the wonderful Naomi Neu (Off Her Rocker / Harmless Noise) has helped us out by bringing A Futurist Theatre to our attention, and we like them.
As usual, we’ve never seen them live or, judging by the length of the first two tracks, spent eighty six hours listening to their record.
It doesn’t take long for Tickets There to realize that opening song, Karenina will need (and deserves) alot more than the usual 1 or 2 listens to get our heads around it. At first it seems a tad drawn out. There’s very little action in the first two minutes and even when the vocals do start to kick in, it has that ‘here’s our answer to Stairway to Heaven feel’. Before long, everything starts to work and you realize it’s been working since the word go. Rather than racing around trying to get you boogying on the dance floor like so many ‘rock’ bands these days, these guys are actually interested in creating a very haunting, unpredictable atmosphere for their music so when it does explode out, it catches you completely unawares. They blend heavy, pounding moments of head numbing noise with suspended, melon collie melodies before leaving the music to linger silently before remerging heavier and faster, each time brining something new to the flow. The song seems to get shorter and shorter in length with each listen as the brilliance of the writing becomes more and more apparent. Not a bad way to start.
Hammer Must Fall displays a totally different approach. Rather than two minutes of broken melodies, its guitars, guns, a go go. The vocals are sorely lacking in a producers touch. Much of the lines during the verses sound disastrously off course and out of tune, but never fear, our ‘research’ tells us this isn’t an issue during live shows. The chorus is both rousing and strong but just before you decide they’re playing it safe on this one, they throw in an ambient, five minute long jamming session that slowly builds and builds before culmination in an exciting mix of distorted guitars, solo’s and \m/ METAL \m/ drums. The riffage at the end is so naughty it should be arrested. Vice Squad, wagon for four please.
This is generally the point when Tickets There gets nervous. After some exceptionally gratifying moments of music from the first tracks, we generally see things tumble downhill at the half way mark and the start of The Boys Back Home doesn’t help ease the nerves. The music is a cross of the stripped back melodies of Karenina and the up-tempo pace of Hammer Must Fall. As the song progresses there’s little signs of the constant changes shown on the other tracks. Again the vocals need some production magic but they come across alot stronger than on Hammer Must Fall. Four minutes in things pick up but honestly, Tickets There has reached the end of our attention span for this one. We’ll give it another go some other time cause right now, it’s time for Almost Human!
Screaming “the belly of a whale” is an interesting way to start a song but the riff that follows in proof enough that Almost Human has something very exciting in store for you. The vocals sound much more confident but Tickets There’s old Bias against all things Emo/Nu-Metal and general American whining stops us from fully enjoying them. As structure goes, this is the best composed piece the band have on their MySpace….after Karenina obviously. It’s as heavy as Hammer Must Fall, it avoids slipping away into extended trips to jammin’ land and could happily pass it’s self as a sneaky radio favorite. The guitar word at the end is incendiary (sorry, I’ve been waiting to use that ever since I saw that movie :D).
Despite our lack of passion for the vocals, we love them. They are firmly pressed into the ‘must see live list’ and the ‘must buy their album list’. We highly recommend you check them out and give them at least two goes before making your minds up. Also, for any fans of Concerto For Constantine reading, Karenina is a must.
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