37500 Yens review

37500 Yens - Astero (originally posted at www.thesilentballet.com)

Score: 3.5/10

37500 Yens are, to be brief, two blokes from France. To expand on this, 37500 Yens are comprised of two young men from Reims. Excuse the stereotyping now, but whenever I think of instrumentalists from France, I still think of the slightly dandyish but ever so arty image of Parisians Arca, you know, the two young men who are “inspired by music, cinema, literature, photographs, daily occidental sounds,” so imagine my surprise when I was met with the image of two metal-esque chaps, one even had dreadlocks, yes dreadlocks, like that fellow out of P.O.D, or Newton Faulkner, if you’re looking for a pop-friendly approach to the hair style.

Now, I usually refrain from embarking on linking seemingly “random” thoughts about a band to other bands. In fact, I do not think I have ever mentioned a band member’s hair in a review. This isn’t something I’m proud of, I’ll admit it, but all of this “filler” basically comes down to the fact that I don’t have much to say about 37500 Yens, and I’ve noticed that other reviewers have fallen into this trap as well. Admittedly, there is absolutely nothing wrong with their music, they’re clearly very talented young men, it’s just that Astero is inexplicably dull. Sure, it ticks the right boxes, if you like your math rock to have a heavy foundation (think Russian Circles) then you may be interested in hearing this, but the problem I have is this: it’d be far more fruitful to just slip a Russian Circles disc into your CD player (or CD drive, if that’s how you roll) than to really bother with this thing. I’m not suggesting that I dislike the record, parts of it are okay and it provides a decent mix of the aforementioned math-rock archetypes with elements of jazzy Acoustic Ladyland madness and even the intensity of At The Drive-In, but it is not a record I would specifically recommend to anyone, nor is it something I would listen to if I wasn't reviewing it. This does seem incredibly close-minded, I realize, that to deny listening to a piece of music may seem that I have a somewhat blinkered vision towards 37500 Yens and their style, but it’s just that their music could easily be heard on other, better records, by better artists.

The sheer amount of “I’s” I’ve employed in this review means I’m verging (there we go again) on making this piece more about myself than the French duo I’m attempting to write and I admit I’ve failed in taking a rather French point of view in this album -- I think it was Baudelaire who suggested that “the man of the world” is an ‘I’ with an insatiable interest with the ‘non-I’, I’m paraphrasing here, but anyway. Rather than closing this review with a witty remark about how 37500 yens is a real bargain for what this duo are offering, I will just leave you with this; if you feel you disagree with my comments, you may well be right, if you really feel the urge to check this record out then do it and if a friend informs you that 37500 Yens are the greatest band they have ever heard, take what they say with a pinch of salt, just as you should do with my opinion.

65Daysofstatic review

65daysofstatic - The Distant and Mechanised Glow of Eastern European Dance Parties (originally posted at www.thesilentballet.com)

Score: 7.5/10

Like most correspondence in our epoch, the news of 65daysofstatic’s fascination with Eastern European dance parties broke through e-mail. A rather oddly worded note from Iryna Berliawsky was sent out members of the Sheffield foursome's mailing list, containing the following utterances:

“I have been to CEE both nights now, even if this cold must grow always like a great fist… they have broken through a new dance hall in the old train tunnels without his help…Spring soon I count, and then we will have a party like before, and dance, dance, dance.”

It soon emerged that Iryna was actually a central figure in an Eastern European themed ARG (alternate reality game) that players followed over the space of four months, which led onto, amongst other things, a do it yourself remix of 65dos’ The Distant & Mechanised Glow Of Eastern European Dance Parties title track “Dance Parties” (the remix can still be found here). Some may already be familiar with 65dos’ previous dabblings with “Dance Parties,” the track from which the EP takes its title appeared on 2007’s The Destruction of Small Ideas and retrospectively, it now seems obvious that the group would have wished to expand on this “stand-out” (as colleague Alex Bradshaw termed it last year) track.

The EP sees the group “creating a 16 strong choir from their own under rehearsed voices” on opening track “Dance Parties [Distant],” which due to the dominant use of synth and enthralling closing chant; “All hold on the day is young/All wake up the future’s here/The schools all closed/The roads are clear” makes this variation on a theme an explosive high-point of the record. The EP includes a second re-working of the dance party variety in the form of “Dance Parties [Mechanised].” This song develops into a heavier rave-rendition, featuring the electronic undercurrent of the track now fighting eagerly with the more noticeable guitar section and stuttering drum beats. The closing sample of the song which observes that “the radio stations are afraid of this stuff” even seems to be a subtle reference to Mogwai’s “Punk Rock” from the seminal Come On Die Young.

Interestingly, the connotations between the dance party theme and the last two tracks on the EP are not as evident. Although “Goodbye, 2007” often acts as a prelude to “Dance Parties” in the live setting, here the order is rearranged. Unlike the plethora of new directions previously heard on the EP, the aforementioned effort harks back to Fall of Math-era compositions. This slight moment of recession can be easily forgiven though, partly because of the wealth of new material the listener is offered with both variations of “Dance Parties” and also due to album closer “Antique Hyper Mall,” which is quite possibly one of the most down-tempo and laid back efforts the group have created.

As 65dos’ Eastern European ARG escapades came to a close, players were treated to an essay on music, life, and social networking from wily protagonist Oscar Thompson. Thompson submitted that what society needed was a “LAST DANCE, the actual culmination of an entire history of fights and parties…One final underground movement before the entire fucking concept is swallowed up by this My-fucking-space-based hegemony and commodifying of an alternative idea of how we are supposed to live”. Whether 65dos are now set on changing the world with their music is uncertain, but The Distant & Mechanised Glow Of Eastern European Dance Parties seems a fine place to start.