Saturday 15 March 2014

Butchers of Sky Valley - Same [NoiseTrade]

Rock Baton

Here's an engaging enough rock/blues debut album, six years in the realisation and a number of band changes, and it can be obtained free or for a tip from NoiseTrade here, so it's a generous share and music better than a simple giveaway.

Opener Black Magic has perhaps the album's best rocker, so no surprise it leads, with a sweet grungechug and the fine vocal of Mike Mokotow. I like fourth Bereft Theft which is an atmospheric and crisply recorded ballad of sorts, but clever in the production to aid the songwriting. Seventh Pony Up picks up the rock and grunge baton again, though it doesn't carry as memorably as that strong opener.

There are songs on the album that sound like demos, for example the acoustic Young Blood, and others like Get Loose are slightly lackadaisical in their blues aspirations, the vocal here bereft of the emotion required. Tracks 8 and 9, respectively It's Not The Moon That Excites Me and Hold On, Heartbreak surge back slightly to Queens of the Stone Age homages, but the album ends on a largely instrumental filler.

So, uneven but with clear promise, and as you can have for free I recommend you give it a try. One gets the impression that with encouragement and a production rocket up a more stable band backside, a next effort could run with the baton all the way around the track.

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