The Eye EP
~review by Mick Mercer
After the richly playful Tales Of The Newly Bereaved album with its vocal charisma and fullblooded texture you’d expect them to be prancing on stylishly to the next level, but they have fallen backwards several steps and it sounds pretty crap. Nic is now singing, following Corne’s departure, and they have a new bass player in Jet and a lot of work ahead of them.

‘Fear, Love Or Loathing’, is thin and clattery, with as basic a rhythm as you could get. William’s guitar is hidden in the background, despite offering the main quality, and the vocals are far from convincing. ‘Graveyard Feast’ sounds like a poor rehearsal with a fairly disastrous rhythm section, although the words hold the attention if you stick with it. ‘Doubts And Lies’ has a luminous, rounded bass tone that the song hangs on well, but overall it’s stiff and stilted. ‘Screaming But Still Not Being Heard’ is the best track, because the limitations of their rhythmical expertise means this stays slow, and they can still conjure up a decent atmosphere with disembodied floating voices and flowing bass undertow. Other than the vocals, ‘And Then No More’ sounds punky in its clunkiness and while they try bravely to create some interesting disruptions it doesn’t do them many favours.

It is an awkward stage where bands lose someone, especially a trio, and maybe they just felt the need to remind people they were around, but given the difference between this and their album they ought to concentrate on the atmospherics they do well, while they all get up to speed and understand one another better or, considering how unhappy Nic seems in his vocal role, think about becoming a four piece.