Buh…yeah. -rock suffixes are lame. But this is good. GOOD I tell you. Ole’ timey two guitars n’ drums-core. Possibly fans of that K Records fallout where the melody lines were just about poppy but the B string on one of the guitars sounded just out enough to be right and a bit queasy. Y’know, Sleater Kinney, Urusei Yatsura, that kind of thing. But instrumental. No vocals and no need.
“Damp Standard,” middle track – doing a fine line in chunky riffs and wobbly time signatures that are just subtle enough to make you feel a little bit like you’re about to be discreetly sick under the aisle in the middle of a close family member’s wedding. But not quite jumping out and saying “aha! Bathe in our genius and ability to change time signatures like proper jazz” (or some shite).
Being from Brighton, they’ve picked up a bit of the local vibe – there’s possibly elements of the skronky collapsingtones of someone like I’m Being Good but not so much of the filth and murk. IBG are a long-standing favourite of mine; imitators thereof I’m less fond of. Mac/bandcalledMAC (I’m not clear which is their official name, and I’d wager they aren’t either) don’t go so far into that side of things to be entirely a Brighton band – which could explain why the EP launch was criminally under-populated – but they’re definitely ticking those sorts of boxes. A soupçon of K indie, a dash of Fugazi and hooks like a fisherman possessed.
Oh, and the drums! Yeah, really liking the drums. Doing enough rock-style time-keeping but a healthy ‘meh, whatevs…’ attitude towards matters. Always a good thing in my book.Closer “Massive kite, tiny sky” is probably their live centrepiece (and I should probably say they’re well worth catching live in your town) and sounds a bit more cheery than the Swans-do-Sesame-Street vibe of the live incarnation but it’s got just enough teeth here to bite through cold toffee.
It’s a short-but-sweet 15-minutes or so – just like proper EPs from ye olde times – but it packs plenty of punch for a band who realistically shouldn’t be playing to mates and strays on cold Mondays. So hit up bandcalledmac.bandcamp.com and do whatever it is you young people do with a bandcamp theseadays.
-Kev Nickells-
