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8 out of 10
Shapes have done well in picking a moniker as their music does in fact bring to mind spiky, violent shapes dancing around on an EKG Display as if life depended on it. For starters first track Trampled By a Horse ambles out of the gate like a rabid three-legged dressage entrant that has just been caught gnawing on the rib cage of it's now deceased jockey. Certainly not music for those that solely peruse the easy listening section. Shapes come across in a similar vein to Brighton stalwarts Epideme, or perhaps like The Number 12 Looks Like You if they were to slyly slip into Mr. Bungle's practice room whilst Monsieur Patton and compadres nip out for a cheeky smoke.
Things start to make a bit more sense when The Escapologist breezes into town with its hip-riffing and stop/start drumstick lunges making the drummer sound like he is controlling the mayhem, that is until only a sidereal second later when the realisation sets in that perhaps he is the ringleader of this cacophony; Thus making Gavin Filmer (the skin smasher) the musical equivalent of an M. Night Shyamalan twist. Actually no, I take that all back, this Brummie three piece are far better than that.
It's fair to say that Shapes landing at Big Scary Monsters (The home of Sparks Lights and Flames, Secondsmile, Chariots and Jairus) is no accidental splashing about in the wrong pond. They definitely share musical thought patterns and a certain kinship with the other bands on the label, yet what separates Shapes is their ability to drip the flip switch in some more submergible mellow moments, specifically on tracks like Our Children's Children and the astronomical start of The Moon is Bright But Coned Off.
Final track You Butcher proves to be an enjoyably cinematic denouement, springing out of nowhere with some lovely strings and, as we all know, strings means epic! But seriously, Shapes spasmodically jut out in all directions like an electrocuted cat. Without, however, killing or lobotomising said beast. Their wileful elbows and broken spectacles style rock is tighter than Noel Fielding's jeans, which essentially makes The Pasture, The Oil a brain boggling, heel hammering, good little ride. So go purchase! And see the blighters too, because they are touring themselves senile all through May.
Listen: www.myspace.com/weareshapes
Tracklist:
1. Trampled By A Horse
2. The Escapologist
3. Our Children's Children
4. The Moon Is Bright But Coned Off
5. Such Stoics
6. You Butcher
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