Score: 7/10
Most instrumental music fans seem to know the following about Errors; they are signed to Mogwai’s Rock Action label. Of course, I am not going to pretend that I know what their favourite flavour of ice cream is, or what socks they wear on a Saturday, as this is not Smash Hits, and I don’t know anyway. The point I’m trying to make is that Errors seem to have caused quite a stir in the instrumental world, but no one has yet discerned whether this is because of their own musical merits, or whether Stuart Braithwaite has been secretly pulling the media’s strings behind the scenes, like some sort of Scottish post-rock puppet master, or whatever. The second “danger,” if you like, of signing to a band-created record label is becoming a carbon copy of your boss. You need only have a listen to Hotel 2 Tango’s/Constellation’s recent output to realise that it has A Silver Mt. Zion stamped all over it, and although you could argue that this has worked positively for certain bands (for example, British Sea Power), from a listeners point of view, you wonder if the bands in question have put their creative vision on hold in order to accommodate their sound engineer’s or boss’s own ideas. Thankfully, Mogwai don’t seem to be as, dare I say it, narcissistic as this and Errors’ debut, It's Not Something But It is Like Whatever, stings of individuality and a direct creative vision.
What is particularly interesting about this debut is how effortlessly it moves between genres; opener “Dance Music” cherry picks key ideas from electronica, math-rock, and unsurprisingly, dance, to create a song that is, in some respects similar to 65daysofstatic’s recent dance venture “Dance Parties [Distant/Mechanised]” but then at the same time completely different. I apologise now that my review can’t be as clear as I would like it to be, it is just that Errors are somewhat indescribable. In my last review, I picked on Soulwire’s A Radiant Nothing for essentially cherry picking trademark sounds from certain genres and splicing them together, but please don’t be mistaken that Errors are doing the same. Instead, they cut and paste together the best bits of their favourite music in order to create “something” new entirely. Or maybe it is not "something…"
There are moments though when this cut and paste attitude can become slightly worn, such as “Cutlery Drawer,” which starts with some promising Matmos-style rattling of cutlery, but then quickly declines with the introduction of George Pringle, an Oxford based spoken word artist, who comes off as more Mandy “bad to have a bad uncle” from Nathan Barley as opposed to fellow Oxfordshire residents Meanwhile…Back in Communist Russia. Still, Pringle only makes an appearance on one track and although the song is weakened by her interspersed ramblings, Errors soon make up for it with seven minute beauty “Pump,” an irresistibly danceable number that puts on hold guitar based melodies and gives synth its time to shine.
Whether Errors’ first EP, How Clean is Your Acid House would have become The Independent’s EP of the week if the band didn’t have such strong links with Mogwai remains to be seen, but It's Not Something But It is Like Whatever is an album that refuses to be classified, nor is it content to be pigeonholed. Perhaps this is the reasoning behind the album title, as after listening I know “it’s not something, but it is like” pretty good, anyway, “whatever.”
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