Album Review: Hamfatter - What Part Of Hamfatter Do You Not Understand?

“As Seen On TV” shouts the graphic on the front of Hamfatter’s debut album - and indeed, the ex-Cambridge University music graduates are fresh from extracting £75,000 from one of the moneybags on Dragon’s Den. The initial furore over the event appears to have died down but Hamfatter are keen to wring all the extra exposure they can out of it… and why the Hell not?

‘The Girl I Love’, the lead single from their new album ‘What Part Of Hamfatter Do You Not Understand?”, serves as a gentle introduction to their reflective indie pop. Eoin O’Mahony softly sings of resisting sexual temptation to a backdrop of chugging guitars and digitised backing harmonies. It offers very little in the way of effective hooks or variety, seemingly happy to simmer along without ever threatening to boil over.

‘Karma’, by contrast, is a multi-faceted rock out with it’s unaccompanied half-sang, half-spoken introduction leading into fizzing guitars and hammered piano. O’Mahony’s vocal explores a range that flits from simple two-note sneering to glorious lilting highs. With a mighty mid-song dropout, a catchy repeated riff and funky, pummelled bass all contained within the complex song structure there is an endless backdrop of intertwining threads to fascinate.

There is certainly an element of frustration at their inability to lock-down a style that they are both comfortable with and which isn’t formulaic. There’s ’21st Century Sex’ sounding, as it does, like Badly Drawn Boy covering one of Divine Comedy’s scattier songs - the problem here is O’Mahony’s vocal just doesn’t stand up to such comparisons. Then there‘s ‘How Sweet It Is’, seemingly a play on the Marvin Gaye classic. It’s replete with strings and piano (nicely arranged as it happens) but with the vocal disintegrating into a Morrissey-styled whine the whole thing becomes too much and begins to parody itself.

As it stands, Hamfatter appear to need one hefty dose of Ritalin. The unsettled nature of this album improves with repeated plays with a few of the songs sticking out above the rest (’Karma’, ’I Want To Be You’ and, to some extent, ‘Down Tonight‘) but there is far too much that merely mimics for their instant hit of fame to allow them to reap the full benefits. A hamfatter is, apparently, a third-rate minstrel - enough said.

www.myspace.com/hamfatter

Also online @ Music-Zine = http://www.music-zine.com/reviews/?id=544

Album Review: Suicide Silence - The Cleansing

Now this is scary shit. Even the album artwork gives me the heebie-jeebies. But then it would, it being the work of the legendary Dave McKean, best-known for his graphic novels and Neil Gaiman collaborations. The band lurking menacingly within are Suicide Silence, a pummeling mixture of death metal, grindcore, hardcore and doom. Upon spinning the opening tracks of ‘The Cleansing’ I can’t help but notice the surgically precise, distorting time signatures and destructive breakdowns that drill slowly, persistently into your brain. The vocals are a mixture of tearing screech fighting for dominance over the heavy spadework of bass-grunting. It’s mindless, nigh-on incomprehensible and meltdown-inducing.

The promo blurb with the CD announces that on its release in the U.S. ‘The Cleansing’ made the Billboard Top 200 entering at 94. Vocalist Mitch Lucker reportedly responded with “It felt fucking amazing to have the Billboard news broken to us. It also felt great knowing that all of the non-stop touring and going fucking nuts every night on stage had such a positive effect on our first week sales”. That’s an impressive breakthrough for such a brutal band and bodes well for the band’s future.

As I write, I’m about half-way through the album now and each track has been indistinguishable from any other. But, wait. ‘No Pity For A Coward’ has a nicely balanced double-kick, guitar whine and bullet-bass concoction. Combined with the rhythmic vocal changes, a spot of arpeggio guitar lead and you actually come out the other side without feeling completely nauseated. Well, that’s a result. The screamo parts are starting to grind but I’m persevering.

The band have clearly set out to cherry-pick the most bruising, deafening sounds they can find from a variety of genres and the result is a cacophony of vitriol from beginning to end. Without doubt its one for the more discerning death metal fan to find fault with – I’m flailing, nay, suffocating here. It’s track eight - appropriately titled ’Bludgeoned To Death’ as it happens - and I’ve made my peace with the deep guttural growl and plan to team up with him and take out his insane, caterwauling friend who seems hell-bent on obliterating my ears. I decide I might use my desk-phone to beat him to death with. No, hold that thought, I’ll ram this portable heater down his throat instead.

The last track approaches and it’s ‘Green Monster’. Frenetic double-kicks slip in and out of the breakdowns and move on into some feisty spots of snare-bashing. The guitars feedback, then pistol into a grinding mash of bass and lead. All the while the vocals wallow before there’s a reverberating, watery thread of city sounds, garbled phone conversations and high-pitched guitar whine over bowed strings. The fade-out leaves me at peace. No! There’s a hidden track!

The lack of track variety leaves me with no choice, and this won’t be popular with their rapidly increasing fanbase, but to advise you to steer well clear of this one. There is the odd glimmer of respite as, at times, promising snippets of dark and thickly melodic guitar shine out above the misery. The band proudly shuns their genre’s predictable conventions but for me they would be better served incorporating a few of them into any future efforts, if only to break free from the remorseless attack of repetition that they seem to have found themselves wedged in.

Also online @ Subba-Cultcha = http://www.subba-cultcha.com/album-reviews/article.php?contentID=5363

Album Review: Ill Nino - Enigma

Cristian Machado’s spitting vocals echo Robb Flynn’s monstrous roar and threaten to overwhelm but they quickly flatten out into a wash of harmonised choruses that fit snugly over rattling, crunched guitars. The real delight here though is the brilliantly conceptual intros, bustling into clever drum syncopation which reverberates throughout. The band’s Latin roots anchor the album with these percussive rhythms and some tracks are sung wholly in Spanish. Their groove is undeniable and irresistible, rumbling slowly forward.

‘Compulsion of Virus And Fever’ scorches a great scar of bellowing whilst the guitar sections bully their way to the forefront over dancing drums. There is a tendency for the weaker, more formulaic tracks like ‘Formal Obsession’ or ‘Guerilla Carnival’ to get lost alongside ones that simply fizz and bristle with emotion and cunning. Still, by keeping close to their roots and inflecting their own unique touches they have produced a constantly surprising album worthy of a place in anyone’s collection.

Also online @ Subba-Cultcha =  http://www.subba-cultcha.com/album-reviews/article.php?contentID=5396

Album Review: Pope Joan - Hot Water, Lines & Rickety Machines

With this debut album, Brighton’s Pope Joan have confidently thrown down the gauntlet to the listener to keep up with their deliberately obnoxious in-your-face avant-pop and not feel overwhelmed. Like a particularly vicious alcoholic shot, it’s short, invariably sugary-sweet but it kicks like a mule.

Opener ‘No TV’ trades in feedback and crunched guitar. The dense, stabbing vocals are breathlessly delivered, becoming almost constrictive. It’s followed by the double-time drums and curiously juvenile 8-bit synth of ‘49 Years Time‘ which descends into a childlike tantrum of bum notes. With the processed, strained and scratched guitar of ‘A Length Of String’ leaving the low-end fully open for the bass to step in, it is the climax of the assault that the band had been threatening.

These three songs introduce the Pope Joan blueprint perfectly well enough. Repetitious stop-start structures, ham-fisted, detuned instrumentation and shouted, stereotyped tales on love and modern life; think Wombats but with a touch of Maximo Park vigour. Then, just when you think you’ve got them pinned down the band throw in two songs that change everything. Quirky complexity becomes composed simplicity as ‘It’s The Same As When You Asked Me The Last Time’ finally grabs hold of an idea and runs with it, allowing a dark motif to dominate. Insistent strings and a raw emotive vocal pound out a hook which is infinitely easier to immerse yourself in. ‘An Alternate Route To The End’ is similar in that it lets one instrument dominate giving room for the vocal to breathe and explore, allowing it’s natural strength to shine.

A mixed bag this one. There’s plenty of bands out there who’ll provide more in the way of inventive wit and instantly gratifying hooks, but not as many who can offer quite the range of tempos that Pope Joan have displayed here. Yes, they’re oddball. Yes, they’re colourful. But when they forget all that and inject a bit of heart into their music they really can shine.

www.myspace.com/popejoan

Also online @ Music-Zine = http://www.music-zine.com/reviews/?id=561

Interview: Less Than Jake

There is no doubting that Less Than Jake are ska punk legends having ingrained their infectious upbeat rhythms into the consciousness of festival and gig-goers everywhere over many years of constant touring - the delay in getting this interview together is testament to that! Formed back in 1992 the band have evolved from melodic pop through third-wave ska before finally settling on a sound that is undeniably their own - a mixture of punk, ska, rock and metal. Now, with a new album due out soon recognising the importance of their roots - it’s titled ‘GNV FLA’ after their hometown of Gainesville, Florida - and with a single currently on free download, there is no better time for Subba to get the inside story on the band and their plans. Drummer Vinnie Fiorello was more than happy to oblige.

Vinnie, the band name comes from the name of your family pit-bull and the fact it was treated better than you. You must have hated that pooch! Was it your job to walk it or something? It was an English bulldog actually, and no I didn't hate him. He was treated better than anyone in the house though - he had his own section of the couch!

Apparently you and Roger have vast Pez dispenser collections, hence the name of your first album, 'Pezcore'. What's your favourite dispenser and do you still use it? My favorite is the Batman with the cape from the early 60s. I don’t use it; it’s up on the shelf with the rest of my collection right now.

Who's got the bigger collection? You or Roger? I’m not sure whose collection is bigger. For awhile we had about the same but we don’t compare what we have, ha.

You seem to have a lot of love for your toy companies. In fact, Wunderland War Toys sponsored the FX Project Vinyl Artist's Jam this year. What inspired you to chip in? Anytime that a hobby can help people with cancer, I am all for it. I mean why wouldn’t I be involved in a great cause with the toys I have a passion for?

A short while back you left the record label, Fueled By Raman, you had started 10 years previously with John Janick. What had you felt gone wrong? There’s a simple saying… "If there's too many cooks in the kitchen the food will not taste well." That became the relationship between me, John and Atlantic Records.

Less Than Jake are credited with starting the Florida Ska Revival Movement. I recently spoke with Bad Manners, a big ska band in this country, and their lead singer had started his own ska festival. Have you ever thought about doing a similar promotion of the genre? We talked about doing a yearly festival and once things quiet down, with the new record coming out, we will continue to talk about it.

You were the first band I crowd surfed to. Is it something you get a lot of happening at your gigs? It still happens. I mean high-energy music always draws crowd surfing. It’s died down. I remember when people crowd surfed to slow pop music. Hahaha, so funny to see.

Do you ever get grief from venues for inciting it? We get grief sometimes but we don’t really incite it. It happens on its own enough.

You recently played 6 albums at 6 consecutive nightly shows in Florida and then again in London. What was that like? Tiring? Alcohol-fueled? It was like a final exam every night trying to remember 90 songs, it was a crazy time, a trip down memory lane and a good way to get in touch with our roots.

What kind of music do you guys have playing on the tour bus stereo? Everything from Dizzee Rascal, Fishbone, Slayer to Bob Marley and Hot Water Music.

You often go back to your hometown in Gainesville, Florida. Are they still the best gigs or have you another favourite place to play? Well we have to go back to Gainesville, we live there!!! Our favorite cities to play are London, Tokyo, and Chicago.

You've recently left Warner Records and started your own label, Sleep It Off Records, which you intend to release your new album and all your back catalogue on. Does it feel good to be free from the industry shackles? It feels good to be in control of your future and the band you’ve been in for 15 years.

You recently suggested that you don't quite fit in the modern music industry. I guess you're a band that has retained its own identity. Is that something you can be proud of? It’s absolutely something to be proud of.... we have weathered so many trends and turmoil. It feels good to have a strong foundation.

For the new album, can we expect a less-produced, rougher-sound? I think the record blends the old with the new. It is a bit rougher than the last record but it’s not a step backward.

Finally, 16 years, still kicking arse, and you guys play at some pace. Had any thoughts as to the future? The future holds what it holds… Hopefully we can stay healthy and happy. Come say “hi”� when we are in your town. We will be somewhat funny and won’t urinate on your carpet… most of the time.

Also online @ Subba-Cultcha = http://www.subba-cultcha.com/features/article.php?contentID=13032

Check out this review of their last album: http://www.subba-cultcha.com/article_album.php?id=7742

Previous LTJ reviews: http://www.subba-cultcha.com/article_album.php?id=2160

Thanks to David @ Cooking Vinyl for helping set this interview up.