|
Some bands are simply impossible to pigeon hole, they have
simply absorbed so much of what is around them and moulded it, possibly quite
unconsciously, into their own sound. The Aphrodisiacs are just like that, it’s
hard to pinpoint exactly where they are coming from, which in itself makes them
totally refreshing and a welcome diversion from the echelons of tat that pervade
today’s airwaves.
Like an aural and electronic vacuum these three unlikely
lads from the Scottish borders have sucked in influences galore and tailored a
set of tunes utilising both the very latest in bleep creating technology and
more traditional wooden strung instruments. It’s a vast melting pot that has had
all these elements thrown in, and the results are, without exception,
magnificent. The three songs collated here all offer something different from
the last, that’s true in many ways, but there is always, running right through
the set that feeling of freshness, of youthful exuberance, of a semi cock sure
swagger tempered with suggestion of innocence and naivety. It’s these elements
that make these three lads from Motherwell just that little bit different from
their peers, they have, maybe unwittingly cast off the requirements of youth to
forge their own style, and it certainly works. It works well.
In the Name of the Father is a sub trance slice of
intensity driven along by a pounding bass thud and littered with hi-hat snipes
and distorted wails and bleeps. It rides rough shed over anything else that you
may be looking at and commands your attention before slinking back down the
darkened alleyway from where it came. This song bristles with an uneasy energy,
it twitches nervously, it’s edgy and frenetic, it has a frisson that is have to
describe, but it’s there, it’s all there.
Nothing and Something takes on a completely
different tack to the opener, it’s a lusciously saccharine duet between sampler
and guitar overlain by a softly voiced tale of lost love, this is a song that
would hold it’s own against anything that Popworld or Top of the Pops could
throw at you. Again, the urgency is there, but this time it is held together
with a maturity that belies the tender years of the band, without a doubt this
is the prime cut of this years Scottish indie pop crop.
Closer 21st Century Love is closer to
In the Name of the Father than it’s predecessor with a more technology
driven stance, yet offers some of the sensitivity of Nothing and Something,
the delicate chimes that soothe their way through the tender rhythms and layered
vocals draw you in close and as you let the harmonies cut through the darkness
and wash over you it’s easy to see, it’s all so clear, perfect pop is being
crafted in a provincial town just to the south of Glasgow by three kids who
should really, if their class mates are to believed, be hanging around in the
park swilling from bottles of Buckfast.
Thank god that they have seen the light, thank god for The
Aphrodisiacs.
These songs are available as a free download from
here, click on it, what have you got to lose?
Johnny Mac
More by this author
|
