UPDATE 2 Jan 13th 2006
New On The Chart
It’s with a choppy,
Townsendian guitar riff that
The High Dials open their latest LP
‘The War Of The Wakening Phantoms’ and as it turns out it’s an album that’s almost slavish in it’s devotion to all things Brit. For although hailing from Canada (Montreal to be exact)
The High Dials are most definitely a band who’s ears have been cocked in the direction of the Atlantic Coast rather than on any sound emanating over the Great Lakes.
Over the course of its hour duration such examples of Anglo pilfery are in no short supply. From the encouraging opener, which retains some of the punch associated with its Mod originators, the album quickly becomes an fun execise in spot-the-homage.
Track three
‘Our Time Is Coming Soon’ recalls British psychedelia or, perhaps more recently,
The Boo Radleys, with it’s driving yet trippy guitars and catchy chorus.
‘Sick With The Old Fire’ screams out “We can do
The Stone Roses too” while next track along,
‘Master Of The Clouds’, could be straight off
Teenage Fanclub’s
‘Bandwagonesque’ and since the track is near identical to
‘Alcoholiday’ from that same album (that steel guitar ‘disguise’ fools no one) the uncharitable might say that it actually
is straight off
‘Bandwagonesque’.
The positively effervescent
‘A River Haunting’ is perhaps the highlight of the album, with
Trevor Anderson’s
Albarn like vocals adding a strange hybrid quality to music closer to a happy-clappy
Belle & Sebastian tune, albeit one with a weird plastic sounding string section and stabs of sax. However on the downside
‘Your Eyes Are A Door’ stretches its
Blurisms tauntly across an over ambitious 8 minutes.
The High Dials, then, offer nothing approaching originality or innovation. However, despite any criticisms that could be laid at the derivativeness of the material here, the band wear their influences proudly on their sleeves and the album, for the most part, is unpretentious, well executed and possess an infectious, simple, slow building charm that belies the second hand nature of the material here. Under those circumstances then it seems churlish to gripe at an album that more than exceeds its low horizons.
The High Dials ‘War Of The Wakening Phantoms’ scores 6.71 and enters Konstantiranks at no.2
RELATED LINKS
Find out more about
The High Dials here
>>>
http://www.thehighdials.com
KONSTANTIRANKS 2006 (CURRENT STANDINGS)
1. the strokes - FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF EARTH 7.07
2. the high dials - WAR OF THE WAKENING PHANTOMS 6.71
tbr the gossip - STANDING IN THE WAY OF CONTROL