Boards
Neon Highwire, Science Vs. Romance, Young Paul, Darwin & The Dinosaur @ Camden Rock NW1 9NX this Friday night!
Line up looks likes this, it will be phenometastic.
10:00pm Neon Highwire
09:15pm Science vs. Romance
08:30pm Young Paul
07:45pm Darwin & The Dinosaur
Neon Highwire
Neon Highwire offer up everything from precise, lean pop reminiscent of Devo to sweltering builds that hark as much of towering electronic influences like Daft Punk as avant-garde art punk like Sonic Youth. Their sound is a melting pot of eclecticism tied together with a coherence which gives them their distinctive style. Part electronic dance machine, part balls-out rock, part pop darlings, there's a maturity in the sound borne from a near-fanatical perfectionism which has led to many iterations of each track on the journey to its final state.
Formed in the autumn of 2008, the group began creating relentless dance music driven by a distorted bass guitar and a simple sampler in order to cleanse their palettes from previous Bristol-based projects Antistar and Antiba. Both of these previous bands had shown a great ability to create guitar based rock that was simultaneously infectious and unafraid to try new things. The results of the initial jams was an uncompromising sound falling somewhere between Death From Above 1979 and 65DaysOfStatic that evolved further as the band became familiar with the setup, each other and themselves. Over time songs emerged from these beginnings which were mercilessly edited to reveal the deeper melodies within. These tracks were to become the Luminescence EP.
The tracks taken from the forthcoming EP Luminescence deftly combine sophisticated layering in the song structures whilst simultaneously leaving hooks stuck in your head long after the music has finished. From the commanding stomp of Neon Blink to the electrifying onslaught of Don't: Wait, the tunes are fat free and incredibly addictive.
Their live show is an explosive, somewhat theatrical affair where the tracks meld together as one big mood aligning mix whilst the band themselves are a blur of energy belting out note after note as though it's the most important of their existence. This has helped them gain a fast growing reputation which sees them regularly play in London venues such as 93 Feet East, The Old Blue Last and 333.
Tom Robinson championed Under Moonlight on his BBC 6 Music show, and with good reason. It's a straightforward song that shows a knack for knowing where to add more and where to strip away. The pounding breakdown and build that appear where usually you'd find a more traditional middle eight in a song put your hairs on end with anticipation. By the time it kicks in to the last chorus, you're powerless to resist.
Neon Highwire are currently booking a UK tour scheduled for 2010 to promote the release of the Luminescence EP.
Science Vs. Romance
These new Stourbridge emotional alt-indie kids sure have an ear for a tune. This download ownly four-track will be loved by any fans of Jimmy Eat World and Twin Atlantic. Melodies as big as houses, and a future that's even larger.
Big Cheese (4/5) March '09
...like a cuppa on a winter's evening, 'Life through your eyes' is warm cheering, stuff. Sitting atop a rich wall of overdriven guitars, the vocals betray an emotional honesty worthy of a very young Robert Smith. 'Black Coffee' is a mournful but energetic slice of British pop, while the more alternative sounding opener 'Out of Luck', with its lead guitar noodlings, stop-start rhythms and sizeable choruses keep things in check on a sonically satisfying record.
Rock Sound (7/10) March '09
...I can absolutely see these guys making a substantial impact if things go their way. And I would say Science vs Romance are worthy of, at very least, an inkling of your attention if you want to sound cool to your friends when you ‘liked this winner back before they even existed’.
Alt-Sounds
Science vs Romance sound absolutely huge. But having already supported space-rockers Circa Survive and the legendary Far that perhaps shouldn't be too much of a surprise. From the name alone you could be forgiven for suspecting the Stourbridge-based four-piece are yet more throwaway emo-by-numbers, but when Life Through Your Eyes' opening track 'Out of Luck' gracefully emerges from your speakers, you couldn't be more wrong. Matching latter day Brand New and Jimmy Eat World in terms of hulking grandiosity, it's immediately clear that Science vs Romance have all the ingredients to be absolutely huge.
Rock Midgets
Young Paul
“(…) an overt celebration of the dark furrows of the 80s synth-twiddling scene (think of early Tears For Fears and Depeche Mode), filtered through some more recent song-screwdriving a la dEUS or the Dresden Dolls (…) Their cover of Paul Young's Stay For Good This Time (that's right, Young Paul do a Paul Young song) is beautiful. They've changed the chorus melody into a sinister evocation of Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction and it works scarily well. (…) You're either hypnotically staring into the abyss on a neuromantic vampire trip, or you're a townie with a puzzled look on your face, muttering "eh?" and "what?" and "piss off!".They've found their darkly pop, crowd-dividing identity, they really mean it, and they're sticking with it. Young Paul is a brilliant toxic shock of sci-fi future TOTP.”
Amelia’s Magazine (http://www.ameliasmagazine.com)
“This is a duo of guitarist Omer, resplendent in white suit and permed hair flopping over his face and Carole, who has a huge voice and a small keyboard. (…)There are proper songs here, and an impressive chemistry between the two performers. (…)The music is insidiously catchy, the mood is warm and a general bonhomie prevails. If it wasn’t so stubbornly attached, I would have danced my ass off.”
Call In The Wyld (http://callofthewyld.blogspot.com)
Darwin & The Dinosaur
Controlling the flailing appendages of Darwin & the Dinosaur are three individually working members who come together to create simplistic, yet enormous songs.
A personal love of bands like Hot Water Music, Millencolin and Saves The Day (to name just a few) contributes nicely to the music, adding the backbone, whilst modern influences and the experiences caught in previous bands prove to be the blood and guts.
Beguiling riffs from both bass and guitar offset perfectly, disguising the numbers in the band (or lack thereof) whilst the drums keep you in line, in tempo and advances the riffs and choruses’ to jigsaw everything tidily into place.