Single Review: Chicane/Detector 7
If you believe everything ya' hear then Punk Rock must be the most diverse musical style since jazz. Musicians from Fugazi to Talking Heads to Blink 182 to Avril Lavigne have been called "punk rock" by somebody. Somebody needs to listen to more Sex Pistols. If Punk Rock is anything, it's simple, loud and aggressive. It can however be intelligent too, kind of like the music of Brooklyn (via Atlanta)'s Ex-Humans, whose new single Chicane/Detector I should really start reviewing instead of wasting your time with this crap.
Chicane, the track on Side A, is surprisingly light on bass. The bass is there, but these guys obviously aren't trying to bludgeon the listener with noise or "heavy-ness." Instead you get to hear every snare hit and every vocalization (I would call them "words" but I cannot prove it). It is pleasantly loud and aggressive, but the slowdown into a false pause near the end is a less pleasant surprise. I guess for a song called Chicane (look it up), it at least makes sense.
Also, the word Chicane fills a full bar every time but is always surrounded by lyrics sung rapid-fire. This makes it feel as though the tempo of the song keeps changing. Once again, this makes perfect sense. Have you looked up the word Chicane yet? It may be a little too clever, a little too artistic for a punk rock song. It's a song about relationships. Fitting.
Detector, the song on Side B, also features a tempo change, but of a more traditional sort. The song starts out at a leisurely pace, then starts sprinting and never lets up. This one is a simple, loud, aggressive punk rock song the Buzzcocks could have written. It's about how you can't avoid some of the suckier things in life, and it's even better than Chicane.
The single was released on the Full Breach Kicks record label in early 2009. Yeah, the review is a little late.
