Review: Tall Ships EP & Everything Touching LP

Apologies that the blogging has been rather barren recently, school work and band work towards our upcoming EP and a return to playing live after far too long (pictures are below) have kept us busy for the most part. But I thought I'd get back into the swing of things by giving a double album review of Tall Ships, a band I saw down at Latitude Festival (see my post of Saturday at Latitude) and have been really been getting into their material.

As I've said, I first saw Tall Ships at Latitude festival but only caught the end of their set, even so, what I saw made me wish I'd made the effort to get there much earlier. There was a lot of on-stage energy and obvious passion for their music, something which you would have thought may dull with time and playing the same songs again and again, but it was clear to the see enthusiasm was there throughout. This probably deserved them a much later slot than they were playing, but hey, even the best bands start at the bottom to get to the top. After the festival I started looking at their material and thought I should have a go at reviewing both their self-titled EP and their début full-length album 'Everything Touching'.

Also, for anyone local (Leeds etc) wanting to see them live, they're playing at Brudenell Social Club in Leeds next year on 3rd March for a dirt cheap price, not to be missed!: Buy Tickets. and their website here.

For fans of: Foals,The Vaccines, Mumford & Sons, Battles.

Tall Ships EP - (Buy here)

This is their début 4-track EP, something that nearly all bands produce and sometimes can tend to be better than most bands whole albums. It was clear from the start that this EP was a cut above the rest, it is what I would describe as 'clever rock', music that takes care with everything that it does but still sounds raw and fresh at the same time. I liked the use of other sampled media on the tracks such as 'Words Are Pegs On Which We Hang Ideas', something I want to experiment with in the future with Figurehead, which I feel adds an extra dimension to an already rich and complex sound. One thing that I very much admire in this band is the massive atmospheric sound with brilliant sweeping dynamics, almost approaching post rock, that they make with only 3 guys, my band struggles to even match it with 5 people in the band... They also show a lot of versatility in this EP with the inclusion of the brilliant phat synth arp on 'Books' which then drops back down effortlessly. The vocals and lyrics on this album, something that interests me a lot as a vocalist, are very good. The vocals are very solid throughout, whether singularly or in the choir-like harmonies, whist having a very good knack for decent and catchy vocal hooks and melodies. The lyrics, while nothing ground breaking, are still very, very good, whist still being provocative they have interesting themes, nautical as you would imagine, and having something that I feel my own lyrics really lack, substance. The drums also deserve a mention as I particularly enjoyed the 'running' drums in 'Vessels', having the kind of almost 'dancy' feel at times that reminds me so much of Foals. The EP is largely instrumental, letting the the music do the talking, and when the music is this good, you'll find it hard to complain.

Song Highlight: Tall Ships - Vessels. This song is by far the highlight of the EP, and probably is my favourite song by Tall Ships. It showcases everything that they can do, and they do it all so well, such as the provocative vocal harmonies, the brilliant build-up and an ending that lends itself to live sing-a-longs.

Rating: 7/10

Tall Ships - Everything Touching LP - (Buy here)

This is Tall Ships' début full length album and I have to say it starts in style with the belter of an opener 'T=0' Its clear that much has remained from the EP but they have also developed and refined what they had into something in my opinion, a bit more well-rounded. This album does get at times a bit heavier than the EP but dynamically the songs swap tempo, dynamics and intensity very fluidly. Vocals come slightly more to the fore in this album, but instrumentally it remains very strongly rooted in the complex melodies of the EP. Once again the massed vocals and tuneful singular vocals complement how melodic the music is very well. This album has a lot of diversity in it musically, from the grand sweeping tracks such as 'Best Ever', to the funkier tracks such as 'Oscar'. This is something that I'm looking to do in my band, particularly for our upcoming EP, which is creating a release which has the individuality and diversity of all the songs but is still a cohesive piece of art. There is a lot more minimalism in this release with toned-down and stripped-down songs such as 'Ode To Ancestors' and 'Send News' songs which sound almost like The Antlers, not a bad thing at all! 'Gallop' provides a brilliant lead single for the album, interesting, catchy and with a good rhythm behind it which is sure to go down well live. To finish off the album there is the 9 minute long epic 'Murmurations' once again showing that Tall Ships have a talent for longer songs which lend themselves perfectly to the end of albums or to end a set live, such as Vessels (see above)

Song Highlight: Tall Ships - T=0. One of the best album openers I've heard in a while, it grabs you right from the start and doesn't let go. It also shows the heavier side of Tall Ships' repertoire, seeing them advance from what they did with their EP to a more well balanced and diverse début album.

Rating: 8/10

Rewind Presents: The End of The World

Friday 19th December saw us return to live performances after the setbacks that seemed to have plagued us for the last 6 months. We gave a 40 minute set to a small but seemingly enthusiastic crowd and seemed to be well received, even the two new songs that were given their first live airing, 'Tainted' and 'Republic Of Heaven'. We also played a cover of 'There There' by Radiohead, always wary to take on a cover from Radiohead as some songs can be so damn difficult...

Radiohead - There There

All the other bands who played were brilliant especially Tweak and Explicit Symphonies - who performed admirably without a bassist or permanent vocalist. Tweak also have a festive new EP to get everyone in the mood for Christmas - http://tweaktheband.bandcamp.com/album/tweaks-christmas-present

Tom Hardie also provided excellent photographs of all the bands (see below), such professional photography at his age has also got him a good following - TH Photography (Facebook)

The last few months also saw us get to a few milestones in the band, some more worth shouting about than others:

• We reached the six month anniversary of our last gig (O Shame!)
• We managed to reach over 1000 accumulated plays on Soundcloud, for which we're very grateful!
• Possibly most importantly we got ourselves onto a mentoring scheme with MAS records which provides free structure, industry advice, practising and recording to young bands on the scheme. So in short, big things lie ahead, keep posted!

So here's to a good Christmas! And if you can spare the time a free download of Comfortable Prison:

Cheers, Mason.