| CD REVIEW San Andreas |
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Band : San Andreas Formed in 2004, Rotterdam (Holland) based EmoCore act San Andreas booked a one-week UK tour even before they had released their debut mini-album The Lover Kills (released in early 2005 through Rotterdam based Squash Records). The band also applied for Austin, Texas' South By Southwest Conference And Festival, and was invited to join the event even before anyone in Holland had even heard of 'em (well, except for those who'd seen the band on one of their sparce Dutch shows, of course). Shortly after the release (which got rather positive reviews), they returned to that island for a full-fledged, 3-week tour, as part of a 100 show assault in support of the album! Besides headlining many smaller festivals in Austria and Germany, the quintet [currently comprised of lead singer Stephan "Sopo" Kruithof, guitarists Robert & Peter Mol, bassist/ backing singer Roger (who supplanted Hugo Spruijt since the mini-album's release), and drummer/ backing singer Jeroen "Jrn Jqt" Jaquet] has spent the last 2 ½ on the road, and have become well-known entities on Dutch national tv and radio, as well as MTV Netherlands as well as TMF Netherlands. 2006 saw the band contribute their version of "Brand New Day" to the Do The Aper tribute album. The band only thought about taking out time to write the material for their current album earlier this same year! Wanting to show the progress they'd made over the last years in the best possible way, they chose for a more serious recording, hiring producer René van der Zee (lead singer & guitarist with The Hague's Pop Punkers Cooper) who basically told 'em to be themselves, to follow their hearts and make the music THEY wanted to hear! Everything then fell together just fine, so now the search started for a more international label, and the boys apparently struck gold when they got an offer by UK's worldwide respected Lockjaw! In order to get the best sound possible, the band then went to work with Christiaan Stijnen for the mixing of the material, who allowed the band to be part of that process as much as possible. Eventually, the mixed recordings were sent to Alan Douches (who's already done work for the likes of Mastodon, Ben Folds Five Converge, Thrice, Sepultura, Fall Out Boys and literally dozens of others) at his West West Sound studios in the US to optimalize on everything even more! The eleven songs on the album all fall in the "Energetic EmoCore" category! Vocally, there's just enough variety to not bore those among us (me included) who've had their fill of the genre a couple of years back, with both clean and screamed vocals mingled in various proportions depending on any song's needs. Musically, the guitarists play the same kinda game, constantly exchanging more energetic passages with seamingly calmer ones...which nevertheless always have some tension held within! I have to say, honestly, it's the exhilerating music itself which pulled me personally over to the band's side, and frankly...if the band only had a sparkle of what they are today, I'm not surprised they were invited to SXSW, because the Americans simply dote on this kind of energetic yet sensitive heavy music! Check out a couple of songs on the current album at myspace.com/sanandreasnl (for older material, check out last.fm/San+Andreas, where you can also find a couple of videos). Good to know (if you read this in time): The album's release party is on November 15 at Dordrecht's Bibelot, where the band will play alongside label mates A New Day (with whom they then go on a short tour of the UK). The day before there's a free pre-release party (which the guys will not attend due to a gig in Alkmaar) at De Popcentrale, also in Dordrecht, where you'll be able to listen to the whole album, besides witnessing live appearances by Davenport, Meet The Storm, and Menesis. On the day of the gig, the band does an in-store at Dordrecht's Velvet, playing an acoustic set to get in the mood for later on in the evening. Oh, by the way, it'll be interesting to actually buy the album on the evening of the release party, as the band will be offering you to buy it at only 10 Euros (in stead of the store value of 15!). Final thoughts: although I've indeed had my fill of Emocore a couple of years back, this band is one I make a definite exception to the rule for! The intense/ tension-strained guitar parts and vocals, they dó something to me...not enough to put the band in my year-lists, but enough for me to be able to actually enjoy listening to Man Or Monster a couple of times at least! 86/100 Tony. |