ok, there’s no denying it, but this lot are aiming for the hormonally charged teen rock-n-rave market. clearly throughout this 11 track 45 minute brief but fit to burst album, there is a love for the full on, in-yer-face d-n-b grooves of pendulum along with the arena styled beats and noise of the prodigy, but where others have failed to impress me, this lot have provided a massive injection of adrenalin fuelled dance-rock energy by combining radio friendly tunes with beats and noise.
from the cover artwork alone, this band are about the moshpit, the sweat, and the fury. such statements of declaration are matched by the music from the word go, as the qemists open the album with previous single, stompbox, involving ram raiding guitars and hands in the air drum-n-bass breakbeats. truly glorious to kick start the central nervous system on any day of the week.
this is quickly superseded by the unexpected appearance of mike patton on lost weekend, which cant help but awaken such dead spirits as nu-metal.
thankfully, the associations are short lived as the track has a chorus and breakdown to kill pa systems from a distance. absolutely massive and fantastic.
next up is the euphoric drum-n-bass intensity of on the run with old school rave keyboard stabs, and female vocals, but despite these well trodden paths, the track somehow doesn’t drift into cliches (lyrically may be another matter, though albums like this are rarely about the wordplay).
now after 3 tracks of fast-n-furious beats, things kick back a little with the dancehall motions of dem na like me, featuring one true genuine popstar of the current world, wiley.
of course, the fact that wiley was once, for a brief time, a ninja tune artist probably helped smooth over any negotiations. his presence is very welcome, dragging the album out of its historical nods making dem na like me a track that could not have been made in any year other than 2009. full frontal production, wiley wordplay, and a big’ol dancehall sample makes this a surefire killer. wait until you hear this rattling soundsystems after which its true raison d’etre becomes all the more apparent.
s.w.a.g comes in two parts and forms the central focus of the album, giving it a genuine feel of a proper album as opposed to a randomly thrown together collection of tracks.
first up is the moody ambient introduction, which is followed by the build chaos of the genuine article. its on this track that the production confirms the bands roots lie in rock music albeit via a modern studio twist.
clearly the band have a desire to craft proper songs first and foremost, on top of which they fuse the extra elements that make up the bands sound.
the rest of the album continues along the same path, loud guitars, loud drums, rave samples, crowd friendly shout outs, all melded to some head bopping melodies, making join the q one of the biggest surprises of the year so far for me given that d-n-b is rarely a genre i enjoy, especially in the long player format.
quite simply : if you need an album to get pumped up to on a saturday night before the booze starts to flow, then this is the album for you, or, if you need something to stir the soul on the headphones on the way into the grey walled office, then this is the album for you. rave heads or moshers, this is the album for you.
this is the album for you.
more detail : here