I'll say it again! Wales is on fire musically lately and despite the band name, French Alps Tiger are from Swansea. A friend mentioned them to me a few months ago, saying that they seemed a really promising shoegaze band. Now, I find Shoegaze largely boring, as interesting as errrr gazing at shoes. So I didn't pay much attention.
Then I heard Heavy completely separately and thought mm this is great, I'd like to hear more and so I got hold of the album and Wow! This is amazing. Incidentally, this is listed as an EP, but with 8 tracks at over 28 minutes, this is an album to me.
I guess you'd class this as Indie Rock, but it is far more than that. There is a wonderful vibe throughout that is more Psych meets Post Punk, a sort of Velvet Underground for da kidz of today, yet at time it steps into the melodic, Tell A Lie, for instance, edges on Slacker and even gets near to a chorus.
Let Me Down has a wonderful street drawl and a killer riff that haunts. Punch In The Bowl has a wonderful stoner feel, meandering into your brain. Floor Is Lava gets all Garage Rock and even a tad 70s punky until a magnificent Psych Riff is revealed.
Lost Boys starts with an incessant drum beat and surf riff and comes out as something that would comfortably sit on Blur's 13 album. Gimme Yeh is slowed down and shows a completely different side to the band, all moody, a hypnotic melancholic joy of a song.
Heavy is the closer and treads into a sort of Gallagher vocal, but is far more interesting that ever came from Oasis and what a guitar sound. Switch Off All The Time is a superb, highly original, tour de force. What a storming debut album!
You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available in all formats. You can find out more about French Alps Tiger here.
......................................
No comments:
Post a Comment