25th February 2023
Christopher Nosnibor
There aren’t many singles that grab you with the opening bars, but silktape succeed with a tune that’s deeply rooted in both nineties and turn of the millennium alternative, spidery tripwire guitars spiralling around math-rock motifs against a hammering bass and sturdy drumming. They present all the angles with some shouty vocals atop guitars that some in from this side and that, with hints of Fugazi, …Trail of Dead, and Jacob’s Mouse cutting in alongside more recent reference points to make for a busy but solid and breath-catching sound, and they’re coming to the chorus now, and….
The chorus – well, it sounds like it belongs to a different song altogether. When they pitch it as being ‘’anthemic’, they’re absolutely right, but it’s from that vein of emo that renders it rather anticlimactic following the tense dynamics of the verse. It’s very much a cliché terrace-chanty ‘woah-hoah’ effort that would be more effective if it didn’t sound so template-drawn, down to the ‘ok not to be ok’, message, which is positive but somewhat uninspired and uninspiring.
The midsection, where they drop everything right down is brilliantly realised, and the song’s structure, paired with the contrasting guitar sounds, is outstanding. It’s early days for these guys – ‘Sink or Swim’ is only their second single, and they clearly have the songwriting skills and musical skills which demonstrate huge potential – and no doubt they’ll go far and almost certainly swim rather than sink once they decide for certain which audience they’re going for.
AA
silktape by Will Fraser Creative
Aural Aggravation 