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Judging
from the Access All Areas night Morning Runner has built up quite
a following, but not of the jogging variety. Rather, this Reading-band
attracted A&R bods to head down to the Face Bar in their hometown
to see if they could be the next big thing.
Before
them though came three other Reading bands. If the A&R crew had bothered
to witness the entire evening they might have seen that Morning Runner
weren't the best band on that night. It's another case of hype above
reality.
Rebus
kicked the night off with a huge metal-toed boot playing a range
of Hives-style powerful garage punk.
Tight
and immediately melodic guitar riffs rip through a roaringly upbeat
set. Tracks such as the bittersweet Acute Pain start off slow but
crescendo into rocking drums and primal singing.
Their
new song about "working in London" has a rock version of drum n' bass
with throbbing bass guitar, high one-tone guitar riff and chaotic
drums while the singer loudly rasps: "work, sleep, work, sleep, get
drunk at the weekend".
Clone
A has bassist Chris singing with his clear powerful voice, showing
that this is one helluva multi-talented band.
Oh, and
it was Alex's birthday too so it's to his credit that he wasn't paralytic
before they went on. His level of drunkenness soon soared however
when he was given a huge bottle of champers by Jim Bowes on stage.
Indie
rockers My Luminaries I have lauded in past gig reviews but
disappointingly they were lacklustre tonight.
Their
last gig before taking a month off to record, songs usually played
with animated vigour were performed with a mellow apathy, making their
set nothing remarkable and certainly nothing special to a first-time
viewer.
Songs
such as the usually vitriolic Transmitter and attitude-dripping
Gigolo lacked fervour and sounded percolated through a muggy fuzz.
The
radio-friendly Man Without His Phone raised their performance up
a few notches and is a hit in the making - but otherwise the passion
just wasn't there.
If you
like pre-1995 Verve and the dramatic instrumentals of Mogwai then
you'll love Polar Remote with their moody come-down music.
You'll
either be mesmerised by the gothic shimmering guitars, droning Hammond
organ/Moog synth and intense singing, or be uninspired and head for
the bar.
This
band, who have also enjoyed media hype, certainly have it in them
to become spectacular with dark voluminous opuses such as Speechless
and Don't Hang Up.
But
it's an acquired taste and evidently not one most of the crowd had.
And it's true that the singer sounds like James Walsh of Starsailor.
Then the
moment had come for indie popsters Morning Runner, and the
hype had driven a large audience towards the front of the stage.
But while
the Faith & Hope-signed band delivered a tight set of rolling rock,
feel-good melodies and punchy rhythms, there was no sense of them
towering above the others with their amazing talent. Rather, I thought
Rebus were far better.
The
most distinctive element to Morning Runner's sound was singer Matt's
raspy high voice.
Slower
and quieter songs such as Burning Benches, about breaking up with
girlfriends, were beatific but almost drowned out by the loud audience
chatter.
Don't
Fall Down delivered rich lolling melodies behind bolshy two-beat
drums but again their sound I don't think was worthy of the A&R
scrum.
Good luck
to the band, which I do think are talented, but the indie charts are
full of bands that all just sound the same. Isn't it about time we
were more discerning?
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