Boards
Shield your eyes 'Shield em' available on gatefold vinyl NOW!!!
So they arrived the other day and they are MINT. Go to myspace.com/leavethetapesrunning to grab a copy.
Here's some reviews;
SUBBA CULTCHA
'
...this is the magical product of three musicians forming a holy trinity of talent, passion and insight, creating a mighty mass of righteous enthusiasm, inventing new ways to play their instruments and baring their souls sonically and lyrically'
"Breathtakingly innovative; a phenomenal musical statement
You know, this reviewing lark is quite a sweet deal when you get into your stride. Guest lists, free CD’s, and occasionally getting to meet the musicians who defined your teenage years all help, and all this in exchange for a few paragraphs of opinionated nonsense. Sometimes you even write something people take notice of, helping sell a great record or sink a shit one – which is certainly a boon for the ego. But none of this explains why I, or any other music hack, got into the game in the first place.....
No. The one reason why we’re all doing this is because underpinning our cynical twaddle is a deep and abiding love of the power of music. This is the initial motivation. But what keeps you at it is the chance, the prospect of finding that rarest of creatures, a band which destroys your expectations, rips up the rulebook and redefines what can be done with amps, throats, guitars and drums. The prospect of striking that seam of pure gold has sustained me through over two decades as a writer.....
Shield Your Eyes are just such a band.....
“Shield Em” is the London trio’s second album. The first was outstanding, a maelstrom of fresh air, a needle of originality in a haystack of mediocrity. This record surpasses it more than comfortably, and outpaces every other record I’ve heard this year like a rocket outpaces a tortoise.....
Influences are not easy to pinpoint, largely because there is real originality at work here, but Sonic Youth and Lightening Bolt may have made their respective marks at some point. Really, though, this is the magical product of three musicians forming a holy trinity of talent, passion and insight, creating a mighty mass of righteous enthusiasm, inventing new ways to play their instruments and baring their souls sonically and lyrically. They are innovative to the n-th degree, unafraid to unleash themselves on a righteous jam, and represent everything that first made me excited about music. I will cease any further attempt to try to describe them (as it would be utterly futile) and tell you instead to just buy this album, see them live and don’t forget who told you about them. You can thank me later."
Subba-Cultcha, Eddie Thomas, 2009.
NARC.
'as spontaneous and instinctive as a chine of feral Polecats. Ever-changing time signatures, tempos and discordant guitar lines make for an exhausting listen and it boggles the mind to try and imagine it played live'
"Shield Your Eyes’ no nonsense follow-up to their self-titled debut record sees the London-based math-rockers stick to their guns and expand on their wildly erratic style of indie punk chaos. Recorded mostly from live sessions in just over three days, you almost don’t notice that it’s mostly made up of just drum, bass and guitars. Sheild ‘Em manages to sound as spontaneous and instinctive as a chine of feral Polecats. Ever-changing time signatures, tempos and discordant guitar lines make for an exhausting listen and it boggles the mind to try and imagine it played live. Only the bass lines, which cling desperately to the stop-start drumming all the way through, act as a valid marker to Stef Ketteringham’s cat-like vocals. Listening to Sheild Your Eyes is like being relentlessly punched in the stomach. There’s no time to rest before the next dose of manic punishment comes your way and after about five or six tracks of this you’ll probably need to pause it and have a Kit-Kat. It’s just far too much to take in one sitting, but give it a chance and you’ll be hooked."
3.5 / 5
Marvelous.