Review Summary: He has no concept of life -- what happens when he bites? -- Oh. how I love his innocent mind.
Remember the good old days? The 7-inchers, compilation EPs, single plays; you know, how music is
supposed to be purchased. Yeah, me neither. But there is something to be said for the whole romantic nature of it all. Being so prolific you’re liable to burst, that a constant smattering of EPs between your Long Players is the only way to combat it. Of course this is nothing to turn ones nose up at, consistent quality albeit in small doses, is still quality all the same. Some bands are just
that way. Stricken City
may be one of those types of bands. Truthfully though, they’d need to release an entire album for that whole comparison to even arise, but as of now, they’re complied about 2 years and 3 or so albums worth of material into any varying number of EPs, and singles, preferring to work in the realm of the small presses. With their first full length slated for release sometime in the summer of 2010 it would be almost a stretch to even remotely consider whatever they end up producing a
“debut“. Really they have debuted -- like 6 times already. So now to help fill in the gaps between their last kind of free mega-ep(first full LP lets be serious) and their impending record the London quartet has released a small 12 minute 4-track extended-play to help quench our palettes. A few more minutes of their psychedelic heavy take on something resembling “post-punk” would have been more than enough, but here not only do they offer up these new tracks to you for
free, but they’re a motivated push in a clearly different direction than their previous material. A sound that, if it keeps evolving as it has over their past few recordings, the only thing stopping this band could very well be themselves.
With just the right amount of punky pomp and tie-dye wash out
Songs About People I Know was a clever take on the whole post-punk revival, providing a to the point rock document of modern city living and existential hardship within the confines of an industrial, disconnected society.
Animal Festival on the other hand, seems to showcase a City less Stricken and shoots more towards rolling hills and the good’ole quiet life. The previous holds in 60s pop are pushed to the forefront here. Almost instantaneously from the onset of opener “Animal Festival” its apparent that the mechanical sheen the band had possessed previously, the harsh edges of the riffs, the foreboding lyrics and hyper time signatures have almost all but vanished. Well maybe not vanished as much as they’ve been
smoothed out, “Animal Festival” itself opens up into a warm bass, gang chorus filled romp through the bewitching mind of lead singer Rebecka Raa. “An Iron Heart” begins with wandering guitar strums and a delicate Raa, eventually progressing into the massive slow-burner that it is. Its 3 minute run-time feeling like forever once those synths start to swell and Raa is multi-tracked into a collection of beautiful hazy vocals. This almost dream-pop aesthetic they’ve picked up here with
Animal Festival is worn with pride, and if anything they excel at it. “Bella Writer (demo)” and it’s korgy beats flow seamlessly into foggy closer “Animal Festival part 2,” which finds Stricken City taking a clear shot at ambient dream-pop an essentially smashing the *** all the way home in its mere 2 minutes. Through its reverb heavy, yet innately warm instrumentation Raa’s muddle coos purvey, providing what all good dream pop should -- melody with the wash. Thankfully Stricken City not only seem to understand how to balance all of these styles of music together successfully, but also respectfully. Their meandering between any given sound here or there not only sounds good, but it just seems to make sense coming from them. Truthfully though, isn’t it just that which makes a band great in the end anyways?
