Review: We Are The Ocean - Cutting Our Teeth

Coming to a new band is, for me, like trying a completely new dish. If I really want to give it a fair go, each mouthful has to be savoured and contemplated carefully. Otherwise it's like disregarding it simply because it contains something horrible like, say, liver. When it comes to a band like We Are The Ocean, merely glancing at the titles of the songs on Cutting Our Teeth, their debut album, might cause me to be hasty in categorising them as my musical equivalent of liver.
Let's get one thing straight though. We Are The Ocean have a market, and they know how to deliver what that market craves. This Essex five piece are all clean-cut, well dressed and good looking. Teenage girls must love 'em, and I admire them for that – I know I am probably none of those things.
It's easy to see why album opener 'Look Alive' is the first single. It's catchy; the main hook being the easy-to-remember choral lyrics, handled by rhythm guitarist Liam Cromby, and is an anthem for disaffected teenagers if ever I heard one. But it's main vocalist Dan Brown, in my opinion the stronger of the two, who yelps out his lines with enthusiastic vigour and really holds my attention. My only real criticism is his range – most of his vocals are monotonal, which detracts somewhat from the heavier sections of We Are The Ocean's material, which is a shame, because I feel that's where they have missed their calling. The opening to '(I'll Grab You by the) Neck of the Woods' is perfect post-hardcore, but unfortunately these moments are few and far between.
For me though, their biggest failing is in the lyrics themselves. Maybe I'm just a little far beyond the angst of my teenage years but most, if not all of the ten tracks on offer here are woefully self-indulgent and offer little hope. Clichés run rife like kids in a candy shop (and even force all originality from my similies), and the numerous rhymes they've come up with are just weak, for lack of a better word. In a genre awash with this type of anthemic emo punk, I just don't think they're anything special.

What are we missing?

My new favourite thing of the moment is Stumbleupon. At the press of a button, this neat little gadget will take you to a random page in the category or categories of your choice that other users of the application have flagged up. It's pretty amazing some of the things you come across, and I'm going to endeavour to bring you the best.

The most recent thing I 'stumbled' upon was this article.

It's pretty amazing what we do miss. I wonder if anyone who was actually a fan of the musician in question would have noticed. If it was someone I admire, would I have noticed? I am woefully guilty of walking around everywhere with my earphones in and my own music turned up. What have I missed? What if, whilst enjoying the heartfelt tunes of Frank Turner, I walked right past him busking on the London Underground?

It also begs the question, if I don't know about it, am I negatively affected in any way? If a tree falls in the forest and no-one's around to hear it, does it make a sound.

I think one of the comments makes a valid point: it's about desire. We appreciate things when we seek to experience them, but if someone's doing something amazing out of context, we tend not to notice, or to think it's slightly odd. Not that this is how it should be, but it's certainly one explanation.

AZWAI - Aszerosweareinfinite

It's a good feeling when something you've been working on for a long time comes to fruition. After months of hard slog for very little gain, you might finally feel as if it has all been worth it, and you can allow yourself a pat on the back and maybe a few drinks down the pub. For Malvern-based hardcore quartet AsZerosWeAreInfinite, or AZWAI as they are more colloquially known, that drink should be at least three fingers, and the hand should belong to a big sweaty gorilla.
You see, their self-titled EP was recorded over a year ago, but only now do you, the lucky public, get to sample the fruits of their labour.
The opener, 'A God By Any Other Name', kicks in with the lyrics “between my crooked teeth and self-prophesied lies, you will discover salvation for your ache”. This could be as much a comment from anybody who has found their way to the front of the stage during one of AZWAI's shows as it is about the actual subject, one Wayne Bent. Bent, also known as Michael Travesser, is the charismatic leader of the Lord Our Righteousness Church in New Mexico, a religious community who were featured in the Channel 4 Documentary 'The End of the World Cult'.
It's a belter of an opening track, driving home with the force of something big and forceful and un-clichéd as possible. You might be surprised that there is only one guitar at work here, as the entire band works hard to create a ferocious, full-bodied sound. Vocalist and lyricist Adam Murkin is great at taking a perspective and writing intelligently from it, no matter how bizarre or convoluted the perspective of that person might be. The clout with which he delivers his lines is unrelenting across the board, too, and conveys in part his mighty stage presence (both in front of and mid-crowd).
Next up is 'The Snakeskin Wedding Ring', which claims the crown for the longest track on the EP – marginally. And that's one of the great things about AZWAI's refined style. The tracks are long enough to have enough substance to hold your attention (I'm looking at you, Ampere), but aren't so long that the onslaught becomes wearing. I know that this will be a firm crowd favourite – enough breakdowns and catchy lines for them to really get into.
Closer '(Poor Syntax) I Am, and You' stands out as my favourite. I am still in awe as to how drummer Dan Taylor can manage as many stick-clacks in the space of a single second as he does to bring in this track, but this is by no means the highlight of the track. The influence of The Dillinger Escape Plan is clear from the outset, but it's no mere consummate rip-off: the guys know how to build on their influences, rather than rehashing existing songs.
The EP may only clock in at seven minutes and thirty-one seconds, but it's more than enough. It is an unrelenting juggernaut, devoid of unnecessary trimmings or lyrical waffle. Hear me; salvation is coming - and its name is AZWAI.

Band website: www.myspace.com/aszerosweareinfinite

Modern Warfare 2 - Utter Bullshit

I saw this today. Modern Warfare 2 is huge right now, and quite rightly too so I'm told (I haven't managed to get my hands on it yet - I might post a review when I do). I never actually dipped into the multiplayer of the original Modern Warfare - I'm not very tolerant of pubescent, mic-happy Americans (or rather, getting my pride as well as my pixelated arse ground into dust by them), but I hear it was very good. It seems that many have taken to the new version with gusto, which has already spawned a lot of memorable moments...including this one.



Amazing. It's like the whole monkeys/typewriters/Shakespeare theory - has to happen eventally. Experiences like this are what make multiplayer gaming so incredible though, so maybe I should partake more often than my occasional forays into Halo 3 multiplayer.

Stella Dawes - Contrasts

Seriously, why have Stella Dawes not been signed yet? A clutch of glowing reviews like theirs, and you might have expected someone major to have taken notice by now.
I first received my copy of 'Contrasts', their debut full-length in the summer of 2008. Boy was I excited. I'd been keenly following this band for a while, ever since vocalist Mike Shakespeare, ferreting his way around Myspace one day, politely messaged a bunch of like-minded people in my area asking us to check out his band. Words such as 'Mare', 'Eden' and 'Maine' were bandied around, and I've been in love ever since.
I had known the album had been in production for a while. Mike and guitarist James Barter were taking on the entire process themselves, fitting it around day jobs, so a delay was to be expected. But when it came, I was stunned. Two tracks, 'Dichotomy' and 'Everything Happens to Eeyore' had been favourites for a while, and the recently previewed 'Happy Ever Afternoon' and 'The Unspeakable' had satiated my desire for new material, but even these didn't prepare me for the majesty of the beast.
You see, with a lot of albums, and ones of this genre in particular, the songs – the lyrics and the heartfelt meaning behind them – can come out quite same-y. Not entirely, obviously, but I quite often find myself having to check the name of the track against the listing to get a bearing of where I am in the record. This is never the case with Stella Dawes. Every song has a unique hallmark, not least in thanks to Bart's unique guitar sound – something akin to the love-child of a chainsaw and a cheese grater. You know it's 'Gut' because of the throaty staccato opening. You can differentiate between the two 'Investment Intercourse' tracks (Deposit and Return respectively) because the former kicks you squarely in the groin at 1:31. You know you're listening to what is arguably the album's centrepiece 'When the Tiger Lost His Voice' because, well, who else sings about tigers except Survivor? No riff or chord progression is repeated between songs, and they could have, because they're all good.
For me though, it's the very lyrics I mentioned earlier that make this record for me. Furious wrath and hardcore go hand-in-hand, and that's all well and good, but I like my lyrical spice to take a more intelligent twist than your average 'argh, I'm so misunderstood!'. Mike knows what he doesn't like about the world, but he expresses it intelligently and, above all, poetically. Lines like 'we polish shit, but like it or not, nobody here is perfection' ring true, as well as being delivered with consistent gusto and conviction.
Just a little note on the packaging. If ever there was a reason to buy a physical copy, this is it. The brown cardboard case is beautifully DIY (in keeping with the ethos of the whole package), and charming to boot. The insert, chock full of handwritten lyrics, continues the theme, and a nice little bonus was the typed insert thanking me for buying the CD. It's these little touches that might draw the ever-increasing number of pirates away from torrent sites and towards their wallets, were the majority of albums not merely templated jewel-case jobs. Anything to help in the war.
I know the band is currently not gigging due to the departure of founding bassist and drummer, Steve Butcher and Simon Kendrick, but I wish them the best of luck finding suitable replacements to fill the void. Based on a heavy amount of speculation (and the appearance of a couple of demos on their Myspace page recently), I suspect that the rest of the band will use this time to gather their creative thoughts, and I hope they will hit us with a stunning sophomore release sometime soon.

Band website: www.myspace.com/stelladawes