Live Review from Underground 29:
like smoothed-out coarse grain sandpaper in broad sweeps, they’re masters at the art of drawing you into their back-and-forth rhythm, going from lush to minimalist and back again, all the while carrying you with it like an ocean wave upon the shore. very trance-like but in a slower way. they keep enough sound going at any given moment to keep your attention totally occupied, taking you on an interesting adventure every time. the emotional stories they tell through the performance of their music are simply fascinating and captivating. the sharp drummer keeps pushing the mellow mush of sound forward, eagerly and unrelentingly. you’re never left hanging, even for a moment, there’s always something going on.
Wally Amos
Phew, after two sets of scream-death-hardcore-shrieking-angst pain, I’m in dire need of aural relief. “Doesn’t anyone know how to sing anymore?” I asked myself, before Aloks31G open with a long psycho-metal instrumental, with plenty of sonic noise – reminiscent of the Deftones, but perhaps not quite as heavy. From this, singer Sean hits the stage and they move into an emo-80s Psychedelic Furs-on-steroids groove that sounds great. Someone’s finally SINGING, hooray! My head’s bobbing at last! However, their third song sounds like Joy Division on a bad acid trip before, thankfully, their fourth song moves into a funk-punk groove that would fit nicely on any 90s alternative dancefloor, a-la Primal Scream or the Stone Roses. Plenty of good musicianship, and it’s not surprising considering half the band is made up of Unixx members. And this, their offshoot project, surfs a fine line between 80s and contemporary styles, and rock and dance music, and comes off sounding quite good. However, I personally find the songs very long and verbose, perhaps because they only played four and needed to fill time? Nonetheless, if they can chop them down into four-minute singles, and write four more, they could be on to a real winning formula.
Brendan Delfino
