Off The Tracks

Off The Tracks
  • Blog
    • Interviews
    • Miscellany
    • Special Guests
    • Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • The Vinyl Countdown
  • Back Catalogue
  • About
    • About
    • About the banner image
    • On Song
    • Advertise
May 21, 2014 by Simon Sweetman

No Broadcast: No Broadcast

No BroadcastNo Broadcast

No Broadcast

(Independent/Bandcamp)

In theory I shouldn’t like No Broadcast, there’s a lot of the traits and tropes I’m often disappointed by: ethereal intros that lead to almost nowhere, toms that sound throttled as opposed to tuned, bass guitar that’s played like rhythm guitar only, but that’s all just surface stuff. For all the Muse-iness of some of this (Collapse) I can also hear a pretty kick-ass band. And if opener Reset The Sun feels a little too Tool-like in its circular sweep of guitar effects then by the time of the slightly more direct, almost punk-ish Realise you can hear power-pop and hardcore elements, well, it’s almost like the very early U2 stuff actually – that sort of conviction at least.

As the songs stretch out toward the six-minute mark the ideas start to build. More Wrong Than Right is actually, as a song, quite the opposite – with more right stuff happening than the wrong. The wrong being it’s still easy to detect some Muse musings. But it also feels like Radiohead’s rocking-est moments reimagined for power trio.

That’s one of the joys of this album actually – the huge sweep that is offered by just three players. Constricted might be the highlight, the guitars and cymbals last at one another like the middle of a Jakob or Mountaineater tune, there’s that same hint of The Cure’s darkest, biggest, loudest moments – as was the case with Mountaineater’s often astonishingly good record.

The surge behind Drone Pt 1 reminds me of the last great Lou Reed song – Riptide, also that way that Swervedriver lifted shoegaze music up and off and in the vague direction of metal.

Drone Pt 2 shows the Tool-derived ideas working for this band, no longer seeming like they’re copying, everything’s falling into place here.

And the closer, Driven, has such an ominous crunch to it, before falling into a decent pop song, then meandering off into the swirl and whirl of post-rock that it is the perfect encapsulation of the ideas from earlier in the album, a closing snapshot.

Hey, it’s a name your price deal on Bandcamp. So for no other reason it would be worth a shot. But I liked this. Even though there was a lot about it, on first listen, that could have bugged me.

 

Posted in Blog, Reviews and tagged with Album Review, Bandcamp, Jakob, Mountaineater, Muse, No Broadcast, Post-Rock, Tool. RSS 2.0 feed.
« R.I.P. Live Music
Win Tickets to see Joshua Redman in Wellington »

2 Responses to No Broadcast: No Broadcast

  1. Mike H says:
    June 9, 2014 at 9:09 pm

    thanks for the recommendation. Enjoyed this head-rocking beast.

  2. Mike H says:
    June 9, 2014 at 9:09 pm

    thanks for the recommendation. Enjoyed this head-rocking beast.

Popular

  • Guest Post: R.I.P. Rick Bryant by Chris Armour
  • The Sad Story of Bob Welch: Fleetwood Mac’s Most Undervalued Member
  • V/A: NOW That’s What I Call Yacht Rock
  • Janna Lapidus Leblanc: Four Years In Pictures
  • The Best Guitarist in The World: # 8 – Mark Knopfler
  • Revisiting Live at Knebworth (1990)
  • The Blue Rose: Season One Review
  • Shit That’s Good! Crap Albums I Love # 18 – Mick Jagger, “Primitive Cool”
  • Harry Nilsson: Losst And Founnd
  • Guest Post: “Where has this music been all my life?” On Women Composers in the 20th Century by George Henderson

Archives

Tags

Album Review Art Auckland Book Book Review Compilation DJ DJ Set DVD Review EP Film Film Review Gig Gig Review Guest Blog Guitar Interview Jazz Jon Mcleary Live Live Gig LP Movie Music NZ Podcast Poem Record Records Simon Sweetman Soundtrack Spines Stub Stubs Sweetman Podcast The Ghost of Electricity The Spines The Vinyl Countdown Vinyl War Stories Wellington Wgtn Writing You can support Off The Tracks via PressPatron [OST]

Categories

  • Back Catalogue
  • Blog
  • Interviews
  • Miscellany
  • Mixtapes
  • Playlists
  • Podcasts
  • Reviews
  • Scene Of The Day
  • Special Guests
  • The Vinyl Countdown

Off The Tracks is the home of Sweetman Podcast, a weekly interview/chat-based pod. It's also home to my reviews across film, TV, music and books and some creative writing as well.

Off The Tracks aims to provide quality reviews and essays, regular blog updates about the shows, albums, books and movies you should be experiencing.

It's a passion project. Your support will help to keep Off The Tracks online.

All content © 2019 by Off The Tracks. WordPress Themes by Graph Paper Press