Italian label Brigadisco is home to all sorts of sounds and recently I awarded them 100,000 dodecahedrons for the Noise of Trouble album “Distopia” that has yet to see a release date. I have been impressed with everything else they sent to me as well (check out Umanzuki and Capropoli on the site) so was more than happy to review “Qayin”.
It seems that the cacophonous spirit of Secret Chiefs 3 is being channeled on this one, with the first three tracks being Eastern flavoured alternative rock. I broadcast my love for Secret Chiefs as often as possible, and I have no objection to people using them as guidance. I’d rather bands were being influenced by other good bands than drearily emulating successful bands. I’m thinking in particular of the glut of hook heavy, gimmick ridden dickheads who have spent the last 5 years blatantly ripping off TV On The Radio and Animal Collective, so that BBC Radio 6 now sounds like some sort of fucking hipster commune. Do you see what I did there? I took a long standing grudge / observation and shoehorned it into an unrelated article because I’m a hateful opinionated dickhead. But if I have to listen to Everything Everything one more time I’m going to find some army ants and rehome them in my ears in the hope that they will eat their way into my brain, erasing the stupid shitty trite rubbish that Radio 6 plays all day every day.
What was I talking about ?
Oh yes. Tetuan – “Qayin”. Sorry. This record doesn’t really come alive till the fourth track and gets better from there on in. For some reason the first three tracks seem a bit uninspired. I don’t particularly like the production (which is unimaginative) but then the album seems to come alive, both musically and in terms of production value. “Barakallahulekom” is pretty exciting and lets its psychedelic hair down a little, rather than trotting out standard Middle Eastern / Orient-ated riffs. See what I did there ? It’s pretty much the highlight of the album but the rest of the tracks sound pretty good. My main sticking point is that if I was going to recommend music of this oeuvre it would still be Secret Chiefs because they just outplay and outproduce Qayin on every level. But that takes me back to my initial argument so unless you want to spend the rest of time watching me argue with myself in a pointless waste of intellect then its time for you to go.
Kim Monaghan
