Mind Museum - Rat Race EP

I have a theory that there's no such thing as too much bass in rock, and it's something Bristol three-piece Mind Museum very much subscribe too. Their debut EP positively throbs with the stuff - the tracks feel meaty; bulging, muscular creations that threaten to spill out every where.

On Seal The Cracks this comes to a peak in the track's closing minutes, the band letting loose in a physical onslaught of raw noise. Vocals are drenched in feedback and the percussion slams away like body-punches.

On the surface, the tracks give off a sheen of hard, melodic rock akin to the likes of Lostprophets; but there's an overriding sense of something far more sinister and precise here. Rat Race showcases this best in its intricate guitar-work and massive chorus.

Across the four tracks of the EP, the band keep their sound highly rhythmic, piercing even - at times it recalls the earliest days of Muse. And just as that band found glory in their Muscle Museum, here we see Mind Museum investing their music with that sense of the body - solid, energetic, powerful; it's all here.

The Rat Race EP is available to download from iTunes here.

Max Shire - Goodbye Twenty Nine

Intense personal feelings, nostalgia for childhood, growing older. They’re feelings we all encounter at one point or another in our lives, and in his new album Goodbye Twenty Nine London singer-songwriter Max Shire explores all this and more. Rehearsed for two months and then recorded over twenty days, the album is a labour of time and effort, infused with emotion.

The vocals are natural, full of a kind of inner pride, laced with the touches of sadness. There’s a tension going on here, fought out within these tracks, back and forth. The guitar is melodic, ranging from gentle to forceful at a moment’s notice. The Radiohead influences are obvious, but for those that find Thom Yorke too quirky these days, Max Shire offers a more grounded alternative.

The tracks are long and sprawling, the majority of the songs on the album lasting over six minutes. It gives the whole record a real sense of being an audio environment; a blank canvas that Shire is painting his sounds upon. There’s room for him to explore, to showcase all aspects of his musicianship. These tracks are the grey urban streets, the sounds telling the story of all that which has passed upon them. Office Scum is a definite highlight – as the shortest track here it’s also the easiest way in, distilling everything Max Shire is about into three and a half minutes of greatness.

At times, when Shire really lets loose - such as on Strum – he pulls out epic, Muse-like guitar solos. And it is this capacity for versatility that keeps the listener hooked throughout the album. This is not the sound of a tame indie band who can be pigeon-holed in five minutes and then forgotten about, here the music speaks for itself; constantly changing and evolving from end to start. There’s the string-laced Late that comes across like Biffy Clyro at the more gentle moments. This is beautiful, chilled out rock to calm the soul, to sit back and simply relax to.

Kilto Take

Kilto Take are one of those new artists that have you hooked from the off, the skill and musicianship of this three-piece evident right away as you dive into the dark, glossy immaculateness of their music. Tracks like the brilliant Retrogress see them at their best; high-tempo, frenetic guitars, a brilliant chorus and an atmospheric production gloss that immediately impresses.

Imagine a perfect blend of early 80s post-punk with the modern innovation of its successors like White Lies and Interpol. It’s intelligent music for an audience bored of the endless cheap Libertines clones of a few years ago. And Kilto Take’s killer edge? They deliver every time. Ava is another brilliant slice of the band’s sound, razor sharp guitar solos painting pictures of grim, urban landscapes on a cinematic scale.

Lead singer Jon Crosby’s vocals ring clear and true above the immaculate guitar lines. Bringing to mind touches of Spandau Ballet’s Tony Hadley and Muse’s Matt Bellamy, they capture that same awe-inspiring theatrical edge, adding an epic quality to the band’s tracks. There’s a luxurious power to these songs that simply isn’t present in so many up and coming rock bands. Kilto Take are a band for who wear their ambition clearly on their sleeve, and the music is all the stronger for it.

Check out the band's music on their MySpace page here.

You can download their debut EP on iTunes here.