Review Summary: Touché Amore meets Defeater meets Piano Becomes The Teeth. Intrigued?
Frameworks is a band that has it figured out. Although these Gainesville natives have yet to release a full length endeavor, they have managed to perfect their sound, a sound that is almost too good to be true. The bands spearheading the current hardcore/sceamo revival are obvious; bands such as Defeater, Pianos Become The Teeth and Touché Amore have managed to remind us that emotional and melodic hardcore is not dead. I would like to introduce you to another band that deserves a spot alongside these genre-giants. Frameworks is a band whose sound is not overtly difficult to describe; imagine a band with passion akin to Touché Amore, gut wrenching vocals like Defeater and instrumentation that closely parallels Pianos Become The Teeth and you basically have Frameworks.
Frameworks second EP
Small Victories is just that, a small victory, reminding us that there are still, and always will be, bands that create passionate music. This is an album characterized by violent, crashing highs and slow, flowing lulls. Although this is a short release (there are a mere four tracks and every single song clocks in at less than 3 minutes) Small Victories says what is needed to be said, and does what is needed to be done. Through these four songs a new wave of fans will inevitably be introduced to Frameworks.
If one were to be curious as to where to find the previously mentioned violent highs and smooth lulls it wouldn’t be all that difficult to find examples. Every single track goes through multiple ups and downs always managing to procure a listeners interest while they are at the brink of boredom. In the two minutes and twenty-five seconds of the chaotic album opener
Ida we are treated to no less than 3 abrupt shifts in the song. While this may seem off-putting to some fear not, for these starts and stops seem as organic and ordinary as could be possible. It seems in their short tenure as a band Frameworks have mastered this stop/start song writing, not using it as a crutch as some bands but implementing it tastefully.
Small Victories is a step in the right direction – actually it is a step in many right directions. The vocals hit harder and closer to home, the instrumentation has focused more on atmosphere and has subsequently increased tenfold and the lyrics have seen drastic improvement. Where in the last release we saw lyrics such as [i]”The greatest war we have to face, is when love and lust share the same face”[i] the words found on the new release never seem forced or awkward, instead adding the overall unity between tracks.
Every single track has something that will make listeners perk up and pay attention.
Sewn has one of the catchiest intros this young band has written ,
Model Homes starts out with a beautiful atmospheric guitar part/tone and transitions into an emotional gut wrenching performance, while album closer
Old Chokes includes swung drums and droning guitars incrementally . Each song flows perfectly into the next, creating a wondrous sense of cohesion, perfectly fitting of record such as this.
With passion oftentimes devoid of releases in the post-hardcore ‘scene’, Frameworks have proven that they can hang with the best of them. Although they have only released two EP with less than 10 tracks combined, Frameworks is poised to release one of the most anticipated debut albums in recent memory.
