Lownote

This Vancouver band have created a highly unusual sound that claims a range of influences from punk to gypsy music, and incorporates piano and violin into the mix. Although it sounds like a recipe for disaster, the result is breathless, halting, and ultimately artistic. Each song is an epic whirlwind of relentlessly heartfelt vocals set against a backdrop of mournful sounds. The opening track "Bullet” ruptures at an angular pace and creates a tapestry of dark, moving sequences while Don Mann lays out an entirely compelling vocal style. "The Guts and the Bowells” plays out in fervent speeds, knotting itself up in fits and starts that mark its urgency, while "Beware the World” enters on a pulsing bass line and hushed violin, setting the tone for a more subdued but still dramatic performance. The only unfortunate part here is that Mann’s vocals aren’t as up front as they could be, and throughout the album it sounds as if the massive and maniacal sounds around him are swallowing him whole. This quartet warn that their music is difficult to define, and this is truly genre defying and smacks of originality.