I was intrigued to listen to Fighting Kites as I had never heard the parent band that birthed one of my favourite records of the year “Broken Shoulder”. No that sentence doesn’t need a comma, I checked. In the accompanying guff Audio Antihero’s studmuffin proprietor wisely apologises for post-rock (and the releasing of at a time when everyone knows better). However this is post-rock in the good way, the way that made me buy every single Tortoise album. Yes, I’ll never get back the time I wasted on listening to that hideously boring Explosions In The Sky album but this isn’t like that. It’s much better. Instrumental, melodic and pleasantly sun-drenched I like everything about the Fighting Kites half of this record. Put it on and hoover naked on a sunny Autumn morning. It will be fun.
The Broken Shoulder part of this EP had a lot of work to do, as I had high expectations, and it met all of them. They are almost twins of each other but with Fighting Kites getting all the looks and charm while Broken Shoulder got all the brains and charisma. Fuzzy single note melodies, pootly organs and even some percussion this time, Broken Shoulder are the morning after Fighting Kites night before. Because I am pretentious / clever / arty / conceited I probably steer slightly more towards Broken Shoulder’s broken noises but this is a fine EP that I am happy to recommend from top to tail.
http://audioantihero.bandcamp.com/album/fighting-kites-broken-shoulder-split-ep
Kim Monaghan
