GALLOPS
Following our recent post about We/Are/Animals, we are pleased to be able to bring you yet another Welsh band that churn out some of the most interesting, exciting, powerful music around. Gallops are a four piece from Wrexham whose courageous music first marched into view with their song, Lasers, last summer. Since then the NME and even the BBC have taken note of their incredible, sharply-dressed music. Comparisons to the likes of Foals and Battles have bounced around like naval mines, which is a fair and accurate description, but there’s also waves of variety bobbing away, which broadens their soundscape. Tracks such as The Fangs take the kind of synthetic leap into the space age that Jean Michel Jarre plunged into years ago. This is a particularly useful comparison when it comes to the vocals too, as there simply aren’t any! This is entirely instrumental music, played with a masterful touch and a captivating, hypnotic magnetism. Tunes such as Window FX start like a soundtrack to some computer game from the 1980s before building into the kind of theatrical guitar riffing that Led Zeppelin would feel proud of. More often than not though, the field where they’re most often found grazing is the math rock of 2007. Don’t be fooled into thinking that this means their sound is dated, as with most of the music from this genre, it’s actually very intelligent and well crafted, thus becoming somewhat timeless. To be fair, if we re-visit Foals’ album Antidotes now it’s just as enjoyable as it was upon it’s release three years ago. These comparisons are brightly shown off on tracks such as Werewolves and the pounding Miami Spider, where rock riffs that are as sharp as a banker’s pinstripe jam out, before stuttering as if they were being played by the super-computer, Deep Thought, over jerking beats. It’s this dissonant jazz tempo that is especially interesting in all of their songs, with the instruments playing just as big a part in the rhythm as the drums themselves, flicking like a set of faulty Taser guns. It’s very attractive, as the music follows precisely the same pattern that thoughts do inside the brain, firing electricity around in staccato bursts. Get ready to plug yourselves in with a collection of music that gracefully manages to reflect on the recent past, whilst simultaneously sounding like it’s from the future. (MB)
Find them here: Myspace
Hear them here: GALLOPS – MIAMI SPIDER
Hear them here: GALLOPS – LASERS