Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea - A Small Version Of A Party

The music I sit best with is not music that is usually done very well by ‘local bands’. Infact, I’d go so far as to say that ‘Local Bands Suck’, and even have a t-shirt to that effect. ‘Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea’ are a band local to Brighton, only formed in the Spring of 2009, but already having released their DIY Debut EP - "an honest attempt to transmit something interesting and engaging from our tiny minds and through our clumsy fingers to the tape." to which I have a mixed bag of reactions.

The first track ‘Like Mice In The Cellar’ is a shouty delight, opening with a nice little dabble of guitar which really does sound like mice, and going on to sound like ‘Shooting At Unarmed Men’, if they were ten years younger.’The Taste’ carries on the tone set, but at a less uptight pace, which the band manage to almost achieve the confident, sneering swagger that great noise-rock bands require when singing at such a tempo. Although I’m not sure I really like the odd clean guitar riff that breaks up the distortion, as it smacks firmly into old-school trademark Biffy Clyro territory. When something like that is coined and used so heavily by a group with such a cult-following as Biffy, then it’s best to avoid it at all costs, or risk being dismissed as young and irrelevant.

‘Pricking Out’, despite its title, isn’t all that angry or frantic at all, and I’m sorry to say it, but with its twirling ‘nice’ guitar lines, it takes a running jump and plants a kiss full on the lips of populist indie rubbish. There’s one bit of vocals which make me cringe, as it could be lifted straight out of an album from ‘The View’ or God-Forbid, the Arctic Monkeys. It does warm up later in the tune, but it’s more an album track than an EP.

‘Slow News Day’does a better job, with a much muddier sound (in the best possible way), and nice lofi dirty guitar to round off the release. I’ve been trying to avoid it, but when the multi-vocal parts come in, we have a sort of McLusky meets Dananananaykrod sound that springs to mind.

Despite them calling me ‘Steven’ in their emails - ;) - I actually think these guys have got something, as long as they veer away from the tempation of writing easy guitar riffs, and destroying the edge that they show in the earlier parts. Please don’t end up a shouty popular emoindiesh band; we artrockers would rather have you on our side!

p.s. I like the artwork a lot.

Tracklist:

1. Like Mice in the Cellar
2. The Taste
3. Pricking Out
4. Slow News Day

which can be listened to at the band’s Myspace