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Band : NAME As you can see, I put down the name of this band in majuscule letters, and that’s because it is really an abreviation for New Approach to Martyrs Expression. From San Fransisco, the band was formed in 2003 by brothers Wes (vocals, guitar) and Jeremy Fareas (bass), overcame theft, a near-fatal accident (the band’s van rolling over 7 times on a downhill freeway track) and ensuing hospitalization, went through several line-up changes until Bobby Gibbs glued his bum to the drum stool, and self-released the 2004 full-length Portrait and two EPs (no further info available) before attracting the attention of Lifeforce Records (actually the band originally hoped for a Summer 2009 release of their official debut). Although it would be easy to categorize Name in the same subgenre as other Math Core bands, theirs is a very different one, combining an odd sense of humour and maniacal mood swings with an amalgam of experimental Tech Metal, Grindcore, Ambient sounds, Freeform Jazz, Blues, and cultural World Music. And although there’s some of the more aggressive moments where you’d give the sound a “chaotic” score, the band succeeds nevertheless in keeping things somewhat melodic overall! Obviously, Wes moves his voices accordingly, at the one moment whispering, then singing a clean passage, to start screaming frantically, or falling into an empassioned growl. Different from other Math Core bands too, NAME is not afraid to bring their music in somewhat longer songs as well (even if they put the listener on the wrong foot by opening the album with their shortest track (the 3:45 “Killer Whales, Man”). The centerpiece of the album is definitely the 4-part, 20-minute “Empathic Communicator”, and again some of the band’s humour (and intelligence)…as well as some of their socio-political sympaties…speaks from the subtitles of the 4 parts [just to show you, here they are : “Part 1 : Hommage To The Hunter (Unconcious Incompetence)”, “Bee Bee (Concious Incompetence)”, “Your Sun Machine, Your Space Embracer (Concious Competence)”, and “How To Murder the Earth (Unconcious Competence)”]. With a total of 13 tracks on the album, it shouldn’t be a surprize to find the album lasting a staggering near-74 minutes! Thanks to the band’s musical twists and awkward mood swings however, there’s not a moment on the album that the listener will start sighing from boredom. Nay, in stead you’ll find him (or her) awaiting each of the changes with quite some eager anticipation! At (www.) myspace.com/name, you’ll “only” find four mp3-files (2 of which being parts 1 & 2 of “Empathic Communicator”), but together they dó constitute some 17 ½ minutes of the album. Pity they didn’t allso post “Dave Mustaine” with its weird Dance-keyboard passage, but then that kind of nsertion only happens the one time (would you know, even after listening to the album…as many times as I did - sorry, lost count…I haven’t been able to determine whether the song’s a tribute or a punch in-the-face of the song’s subject matter). Admittingly, a listening session of the album is quite demanding, and I wouldn’t recommend it to any fans of a more simple kind of music…on the other hand, why not? Time to open your minds, and get into that has a real nice complexity underneath the obvious overall melody of things! To think this music is made by a mere threesome…! By the way, apparently the band has scattered some more music off the album over pages at Facebook and Purevolume.com, and they also have a special site [(www.) namefuck.blogspot.com)] where they’ll post updates on the band more frequently than anywhere else (or so they promise). Touring plans are still in the making, so check at regular intervals. Meantime, check out the band’s music, fall in love with it, go buy the album in support of the artists, and place it in your 2010 year-lists…like I did! 98/100 Tony. |
