LowTramon - Rongorongo

It’s difficult to review something that you fear you just might not be able to wrap your head round properly. This is especially the case with the more obscure of the submissions we get for review. It’s easy to dismiss something that could be genius purely because you’re not involved or know about that particular ‘scene’.

The NME famously slated Biffy Clyro in the earlier days, apparently for "trying too hard to be weird". This was before doing a massive U-turn when the band’s massive and growing popularity became obvious. The thing is though, they missed the point either way. It’s not really about a group ‘trying too hard’ to be obscure; it’s about whether or not in being obscure you just sound shiite. You can do it well or badly; it’s just a bit harder to convince people you’re good if you’re not doing the usual.

I don’t really know what "post/maths/jazz rock" (their words) is meant to sound like, but it’s definitely not how I would describe this ‘single’ - Rongorongo (imho, 3 tracks is verging on EP territory) from London mentalists LowTRAMON.

There’s no doubt that this mishmash of jazzy wind-instrument and dark guitar slitherings is ‘off-the-wall’. Is it just art-wank, or is it really worth listening too?

‘Kisses’ seems to get the balance about right - with the Rancid-style vocalnoise giving an air of ‘punk’ to the whole proceedings; the sax permeating the jagged guitar parts just enough to compliment the overall sound. At the best bits, this could be compared to a funkier demo from the mighty Antiproduct. ‘Use Magic to Kill Death’ is of a similar ilk; more of the rock variety

Title track Rongorongo kicks off with a really intriguing combination of the jazz elements and some dark, underhand guitar riffs; the sort that have the confidence and originality that make any song great. They don’t really sound anything like them, but it’s got the kind of screwed up quality that you’ll find with Primus. The tipsy vocals in the last 15 seconds are a particular highlight.

All that said, I found it quite hard to get into the tracks on a whole. Yeah, there were some really interesting diversions in the flow of the songs just when you were expecting something predictable, but something let this creativity down. As alluded to earlier, the problem with doing something a bit more obscure, especially when you’re using an instrument more associated with the world of jazz, is that you really need to be pretty spot on in order to get it right, otherwise it just comes off as being weird for weird’s sake. Sadly, there’s something about these recordings that just doesn’t pull that off. Maybe if they were remastered with the guitars sounding bigger and dirtier, and the jazzy bits toned down where they don’t really add anything in particular, then this could be much better.

Who knows though, I might just not get it.

Download and see for yourself here.

Myspace here.