Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Crashin' Amphibians - Children Collide

Children Collide are showcasing their wares around the world (well, LA, NYC and Austin) in the next month or so, and supported Regurgitator (yeah, I know, I'd forgotten about them) this week in Melbs. They've had some bloggin'. And they've been profiled by Craig Mathieson on Mess+Noise. Could be a big year for Johnny and Heath (and whoever's on drums this week).

This follows two EPs in the last couple of years, We Three, Brave and True on Reverberation and last year's Glass Mountain Liars on Flying Nun. Pretty credible labels and both EPs are decent, for mine.

We Three, Brave and True is a roughly recorded guitar rocker which ranges through all the cool genres. The opener, In the Clouds, is bouncy new-wave-by-numbers with a coupla decent guitar parts. Frozen Armies is hi-hat-skipping bass-driven post-punk; and a relative epic at almost five minutes. The higlight of this EP is Amphibious, but I'll ignore that for now as it goes on to open the newer release. Let's talk, then, about the second best track here, Look Good on Paper, high-energy speed-grunge with the best singing on the album, a distorted throat-tearing caterwaul. The song starts chaotic, pulls back nicely in the bridge then builds again to a climax. Sounds easy but it's done well. Have a listen:

[mp3 - 4MB] Children Collide - Look Good on Paper (from We Three, Brave and True)

So then the newer EP, Glass Mountain Liars, is a logical progression. The production's a little more civilized; the guitars, especially, still have punch but don't tear chunks from your brain as they did. What this does do is remove a little of the raw energy. A track like Cannibal is much more restrained than the earlier stuff and is more a grungy ballad than an edgy new-waver. Jonny only briefly unleashes the lungs right at the end. He's a bit conservative again on the power-chord-tastic Brave Robot; the highlight its the half-storming, half-skittering chorus.

But he's not at all restrained on Economy. Channeling Bird Blobs-era Tim Evans, though without the depth of snarl, it's a dank, shadowy swamp-rocker, which agreeably stretches the band's palette. Though we snap back with the not especially interesting Stranger Love, a simple rocker. The last, Devil's Child, again stretches in a different direction, this time a Joy Division-ish darker, cleaner post-punk.

But it's all about We Are Amphibious. The track's on both EPs and is the reason I bought the first one. It's a rockin' messy new-waver which almost seems out of place on the more polished second release. There's not too many lyrics but they're enjoyably quirky: "when fish crawled onto land/ with fins instead of hands". The key is the energetic stop-start feel and that great pointy guitar part, with rumblin' toms underneath.

[mp3] Children Collide - We Are Amphibious (from Glass Mountain Liars)

Lots of prickly guitar fun. The boys are in Sydney this weekend so get out there, Welshmen!

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