Further

Punkrockvampires - Cd Lp

(Fierce Panda)

out on 31/03/03

When I first saw this cd I was immediately struck by the cover; it reminded me of Sonic Youth. A little later on, when reading the press release, I found out the band have been compared with Sonic Youth before... so I kind of knew I was onto a winner from the start.

Further are an Australian foursome who have been playing in Sydney for 4 years. By all recollection their live shows are aggressive and explosive. This probably makes you think they are some kind of hard Australian rock act; however they do throw in some beautiful melodies in... To me, this make them even more Sonic Youth like. The album's first track is pure incendiary rock: it hits you like a brick wall; and the furious pace doesn't relent until the third track (A guild of 4). The pace of the album is astonishing, bringing influences from ...And You will Know Us By The trail Of Dead (who again are on of my favourite bands) to AC/DC. The vocals are sung with great energy and come straight from Cibot's -the vocalist- heart, while around him his band play interesting guitar melodies and try to do other things than playing extremely loudly.

I enjoyed this album very much from the first blistering note to the last. It seems to go past the listener at such a speed you have to play it twice to appreciate the different sounds the band are trying to achieve. I didn't know many other Australian bands before hearing this great album but now I certainly want to check out a few more, as I suspect they will be good like Further.

(x) is greater than (y)

Negative Snow - Cd Lp

(Fierce Panda)

out on 07/04/2003

I had heard the name (x) is greater than (y) before hearing this cd, I think I read something about them in the music press and I had been wondering what they sound like. When I pressed play on my cd player I wasn't disappointed.

Before releasing the album the band have had two other singles out on Fierce Panda (those two songs also appear on the album). So they are no strangers to working with the wonderful Fierce Panda label.

(x) is greater than (y) have the melodies of the Pixies backed up with the noise of bands like Six By Seven, but they also have other interesting things happening in there songs too: guitars are played backwards, samples are thrown in and this makes it much more interesting listening than the standard loud guitar bands.

The band are typical of the fierce panda mentality of putting out great records from little know bands that are and deserve to be a lot bigger than they are. And this is why I love Fierce Panda and bands like (x) is greater than (y): because they are trying to do something different to the mainstream and they are doing it very well.

At school I've always thought that algebra was a very pointless subject and never paid it much attention, but bands as good as (x) is greater than (y) make it sound okay.

David Strange
(whom you should email in case you want to send your demo to be reviewed on the friends of the heroes)