When Jon Lee and Grant Nicholas were kids growing up in Newport, Wales, they couldn’t have anticipated the success they would have together. In 1992, Feeder were born, consisting of Grant Nicholas (Vocals, Keyboard, Guitar), Jon Lee (Drums) and Taka Hirose (Bass, Backing Vocals), Feeder began a journey into the fickle music industry. With independent label Echo, Feeder would release all of their releases to date. The first of these releases is the Two Colours EP. The EP consists of two songs, Chicken on a Bone and Pictures of Pain. These would later be re-recorded and released as B-sides, with Pictures of Pain’s chorus being completely redone.
The EP doesn’t sound like later Feeder material, not at all. The guitar riffs are heavy and hit you with all of the subtlety of a brick. This is the song
Chicken on a Bone , the riff is very heavy. Not what you would expect if you bought this after buying their 2 most recent albums. Grant’s vocals are rather good and the lyrics are rather well written. Taka’s bass is inaudible though. The song has two amazing strong points; Jon’s drumming is the sort of stuff that dreams are made of, just sublime. The other amazing and more surprising thing on the song is the guitar solo, YES! You heard right, a solo. Now, think of the words Feeder and solo, they don’t go together do they? Wrong, they do, Grant takes the said solo with gusto. It really does make you wonder why they didn’t do stuff like this more often.
The other song on this EP is amazing as well,
Pictures of Pain makes you want more and more from the EP, which is a good thing. The song follows in the same vein as Chicken on a Bone, simply because it has that heavy element to it. Jon’s drumming is, again, exemplary. Not at all dull or boring, it makes you want to listen out for the drums instead of just using them to keep the rhythm. Grant’s guitar work is great in this song overall, but the real jewel in the crown is the solo, another solo from Grant? That can’t be right! But it is, it is one of the most amazing discoveries on this EP. Looking at Grant you wouldn’t think he’d be the soloing type, would you? Unfortunately, Taka isn’t really here on this song either, it’s as if he isn’t in the band at this point. This is a real shame as he later proves himself to be a great bassist capable of making very catchy riffs. You wouldn’t think that from this album though.
There really isn’t a great deal else to say about this apart from the musicianship is great and the EP holds some real enigmas as to what would have happened if the world and Feeder had not lost Jon Lee. Would Feeder have turned out as they are today? Would they have been as famous as they are now? Would they still be together? Would they have eventually moved to this sort of music? These are questions that it is worthless to ponder as we will never know, not until we figure out how to go back in time and prevent Jon’s suicide.
4.5/5 for feeder fans
3.5/5 for everyone else
Pros
Drumming is perfect
Guitar is perfect
Grant’s solo’s are amazing
Lyrics are very good
Cons
Taka‘s bass is non-existent
… that’s all there is
