"Cities EP"
(Self Released)
eight / ten
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CITIES "Cities EP" (Self Released)
eight / ten |
When I was growing up in Ennis, the music scene was absolute cack. Non-existent really, except for a plethora of ravers who gobbled down bangers at the weekend and swore that Tony De Vit was a musical genius. Dark days. So, from that perspective, it's pretty darn fantastic to hear music of such a high calibre emerging from the town at long last. I'd lost all hope, to be honest.
C!ties are some young pups making intelligent music that references everyone from Eno to Aphex to Battles, which makes me suspect that they have older brothers with great record collections. The sound being created over the course of the 6 track EP is a hybrid of electronics and live instrumentation, one that isn't afraid to take the less sign-posted by-roads in terms of structure. There's too much going on here for it to be labelled post-rock, with plenty of sampled percussion and atmospheric keys lobbed into the mix.
Despite what they lack in collective years, the tracks sound like focused forays into experimentation rather than some half-arsed young fellows messing around with computers and keyboards. In an age where most new groups throw a few songs together and bang them up on Myspace instantly, C!ties melt all the tracks on this EP into each other in an extremely refreshing fashion that displays a willingness to convey a certain idea over the course of their work.
'Satellite' is undoubtedly the most fully formed piece on the EP, its distinctive opening break always forcing me to air-drum along like the twat that I am. '12345' is dangerously similar in nature to Boards of Canada's 'Music is Maths', but given the common ground being explored here, it's a minor hitch that's probably more coincidental than anything else.
One thing though - the remix of Muse's 'Super Massive Black Holes' is a wee bit gammy and unnecessary. I think Muse are a bunch of plonkers anyway, but perhaps if the lads had finished the EP with just one more of their own chunky compositions, they might have got a 9.
John Lillis
www.myspace.com/citiesmusic
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