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| I presume that since music journalists are used to dealing with large swathes of tripe on a daily basis, anything that shows any promise is in danger of being unreasonably lauded with hyperbole and excess, amplified by the respite from the stench of dead, tasteless fish. Occasionally, they may be so excited as to make inexplicable comments indistinguishable from that of an enthusiastic drunkard. The broadside praise from Word magazine, "[i]f the White Stripes were Scottish... they'd sound like this," is difficult to understand having actually listened to the EP. Not that Half Cousin are bad or anything. |
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For a band that claims they "provide a home for orphaned instruments," the initial prognosis is that they will probably be consigned to the junk heap of bands labelled "Pretentious, kitsch, novelty." Fortunately (for my ears at least) regardless of this, Half Cousin's EP is rather good. They may have press surrounding them praising their "bizarre" and "off-kilter" sound, but don't let this stop you.
The title track, "Diary Fire," sounds like a kind of swirling junk orchestra, slowly rotating its way towards the end. Infuriatingly catchy, Half Cousin show here that their kitsch novelty isn't that, but actual music construction from bleeps, drums, whines, bangs and vocal snippets. "Twin Silence" is even better, with its carnival meanderings revealing every so often a dark interior. Accordions descend into xylophone bridging moments before launching again into the undulating off-kilter (yeah, I'm at it now) patterns. Finally, there are a couple of obligatory remixes.
The first is a simple reworking of "Diary Fire" this time with percussive and bass-heavy emphasis, but little in the way of reinvigorating the song with different energies. The second remix reduces the title track to a short ambient lyrical excursion, and also does not provide much real interest. Shame.
It seems like the Diary Fire EP's trajectory is towards something rather good in the future, something that is genre-defying in hopefully the truest sense of the phrase. There's hope, then, that the skilful musical bricolage constructed by Half Cousin will continue into further releases rather than descending into the electronic novelty that has beset acts like Add N To (X). |
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| Stuart Reeves - 8/10 |
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