| CD REVIEW Resonate |
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Band: Resonate Gee man, unbelievable how times flies sometimes! Seems like only a couple of months, say half a year, ago when this Exeter based threesome amazed me with their 6-track Lockjaw debut EP Tell Yourself It’s Paranoia…when in reality the review for that disc (still available for your fact-finding needs on the band) was posted on 06/10/2007…and that’s a full 16 months ago! I ain’t sure how long the October ’07 started tour of the UK in support of Dividing The Line has kept the boys on the road, nor what live activities they had during the past year (except for a tour – again on UK turf, I guess – with HPR during December, reported in the bio sheet we got along with the promo copy of the album), but fact is that the boys have kept themselves busy finetuning the songs they were preparing for their full-length album debut! By July the band announced they’d whipped up some 15 new songs in rough shape, 10-11 of which would be used on the album, recorded in August and September during two sessions! Well, I can tell you the end result just about stunned me as much as the first time I heard the band…it was actually less of a surprise now that I already knew the band’s stylings, see? But the effect was equally as fulfilling for me, the sometimes weary-worked music journalist. You know, I got into this reviewing business back in 1985 with the purpose of giving some of the music I liked so much (and in several sub-genres at that, because my tastes àre somewhat eclectic…do you wonder, considering how old I am?) an extra promotional boost with my contributions! Since the new millenium, the music business however expanded in somewhat ludicrous exponential way, making it easier for bands to release stuff. While that has made it possible even for bands to release their own material in professional packages, it’s also made for an over-saturation of the market…and a lot of middle-of-the-road, runalong releases. Last year, I made some 500 reviews (which ain’t even 10% of what comes out every year), and yes, a lot of that stuff had me doin’ things in a somewhat matter-of-fact, bored way (but never without patying attention to details, mind you). Luckily (and now we’re getting to the point of this story – for those whom were finding me somewhat long-winded by now), there’s always a couple of releases that stand out head and shoulders. And I’m telling you no secrets that in reality, it’s that kind of releases that keep me going on with this reviewing business. Resonate’s material sure belongs among the bétter stuff out there. According to the bio sheet, the band’s main current influences are Oceansize, The Mars Volta, The Fall Of Troy, Explosions In The Sky, and Battles (their original influences being the Deaftones and At The Drive In, if you care to remember from that review I did of their EP), but their nice alternating of frail, sometimes Ambient-like, moments (composed guitar-handling with drawn-out notes) against more aggressive (Screamo vocals, more distortion) passages, intersperced with great Progressive runs of delicate note-picking…(take my breath here)…still reminds me most of Shudder To Think. It’s the overall mood, really, because STT never sounded like Resonate does occasionally! To make things even more wacky, there’s a couple of songs (“White Horses In The Waves”, “Lucid Dreams”) where cello is added (also violin in the first), and two (“Lucid Dreams” again,and “You Could Be Signing Your Life Away”,butherein a diminished capacity) in which some female (no info released as to whom she is) brings a (backing) vocal contribution. Ambient is pushed to the foremost with the short (only just under 2 minutes long) “instrumental” (there’s some conversational babble – sounding like as if recorded in a metro station corridor – towards the end) “Jamais Vu”. You know, I must’ve listened to the album 4-5 times prior to even taking notice of the details…simply because I was enjoying what I heard so much I was constantly dreaming away, not even noticing song endings/beginnings…it was all just a blisful blur to me, and I hope it can be for you too! Check out what’s available at myspace.com/reso…if you don’t like, you’re either too young to appreciate good music when you hear it…or your youth makes you one-sided for a certain genre! Which makes me wonder why you’ve been reading on as long as you have, really! 16 months eh? Ain’t that the time needed for an elephant to be born after the impregnation of the mother? Well, it may have taken Resonate more time, but then their personal baby is a true mastodont of an album…and well-worth the wait! According to the info I’ve got, the band will be touring the UK and Europe during early April with like-minded bands such as Jet Pilot, San Andreas, and Parties Break Hearts, with several festivals already considering putting the band on their bill. When I last went looking, no dates confirmed for Belgium yet…but I hereby repeat a promise made in the review of the band’s EP: come play close enough to my hometown Leuven, and I will make sure to get to your gig!!! 98/100 Tony. |