Turing Apples

IMG_0879.jpg Live Review from Planetrox China Final 2017

1. Teenage Kicks
2. Leave
3. Pretty In Pink
4. Make Us Feel
5. This Disconnect

Turing Apples are next to grace the stage. Something Blue having warmed up the crowd to the level of a nice morning stretch. They seem pumped and totally up for this.
They start things of with Teenage Kicks, not a cover of the Undertones, and an attempt to get a crowd clap going falls pretty flat. I’m sure it’s not a taste of things to come. There’s a real 90s feel to this tune with a lot of “what the fucks” being sung. Lead singer Nicola clearly spent her formative years singing Alanis Morrisette songs, the similarity at times uncanny. I can’t say enough how fired up this band are for tonight. It’s infectious and I can feel the mood in the crowd change because of it.

On the song Leave the bass on this is really cool, up tempo and tight. I get a taste of Blondie here. As well as a 70s rock flavour like Ramjam. Ali’s guitar solo is very Richie Sambora. These guys are taking a very big step towards Canada for me.

It’s clear on Pretty in Pink that Rafe on bass is the back bone of their sound and I love how Ali on guitar looks like he works in IT but he’s totally rocking out. Latif Dilworth on drums has been solid so far just a little loose in places on this one for me. The song gets a tad lost a couple times but they bring it back. At one point I find myself singing along, but Zombie by the Cranberries to their song. Nicola calls out to the big table at the back, clearly their travelling support, let’s not forget the rest of the crowd now.

On Make Us Feel the second go at a crowd clap is a little more successful. This is their stand out song for me. The whole band are all really on it, Ali going about his business with real class and I love how much fun Rafe is having on this song. A great song, first time I’ve been completely impressed tonight. Wanchai Road and Nasty Dudes will be a little nervous now.

– Simon Donald Jones


IMG_9470.jpg Live Review from Sub Terra #1:

1. Make Us Feel
2. Pretty in Pink
3. Game
4. Better This Way
5. Leave
6. Machine Gun
7. This Disconnect

Turing Apples elevated the night one step further, with their propelling drums and 90s post-rock edge. ‘Make Us Feel’ and ‘Pretty in Pink’ started the set with the clean picked guitar tones of Hans Schlaikier and Ali Reid reminiscent of Peter Green, and simple but solid bass lines from Rafe D’Acquino. 

Game’ seemed much more moody and abrasive, as if an early cut from The Pixies, and Nicola Parrington’s vocals set her as a dead ringer for Kim Wilde, further cementing that late 80s/early 90s vibe the band was creating. As the set progressed through ‘Better This Way’ and ‘Leave’, Schlaikier and Reid’s became more angsty and discordant, not dissimilar to mid-00’s post-punk bands such as The Young Knives and The Futureheads. Drummer Latif Dilworth included simple but effective fills throughout the set, keeping the uptempo songs grounded, and allowing a solid structure for some slick pull offs and string bends in the occasional yet explorative guitar solos.

Machine Gun’ had three very differing sections, beginning with a Funk/Rock riff scarily similar to ‘Can’t Stop’ by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, before a jarring change to an almost underwhelming bouncy pop number. The song was further clouded with a middle section dominated by some guitar riffs which could have easily been plagiarising any song from Bloc Party’s ‘Silent Alarm’.

Despite some glaring similarities to specific songs, Turing Apples supplied a slick performance that seemed to improve with each number. There was solid rhythm throughout from D’Acquino and Dilworth, nice interplay between Reid and Schlaikier, but Parrington’s voice managed to stick out most, despite her shy and quiet nature onstage.

– Chris Gillett

Nerd rock是什麼?!?這個標籤在音樂風格上沒有什麼特別意思,卻有助我們認識Turing Apples的性格。在網上,這隊五人組合好像刻意避免鋒芒太露,粉絲不多。在台上表演時,歌手Nicola表現謙卑,不喜歡「曬」自己的才華,他們整晚最興奮的一刻,竟然是鼓手宣佈自己剛辭去了工作。然而Turing Apples的寫作、編曲能力真的是一流,筆者別無辦法,一定要大力推薦這隊樂隊。

表面上,他們的風格與2000年代的獨立搖滾樂隊Arctic Monkeys、The Strokes等最相近。但是仔細聆聽後,會發覺一對結他手Ali和Hans的配合,完美得有點像Rolling Stones,而「Machine Gun」一首歌更令人聯想起Red Hot Chili Peppers的funk結他風格。與一般崇拜享樂主義的酒吧樂隊不同,他們很多首作品—尤其是「Better This Way」—也帶有一絲懷念的悲傷。唯一較可惜的一點是,可能因為當晚擴音器體積不夠大,音質不夠清晰。要真正欣賞他們編曲的細緻亮點,只能上網聽他們的EP(或等待The Underground再次邀請他們出來演出……)
– Elson Tong


IMG_1210.JPG Live Review from Planetrox China Final 2014

As the boards bearing the bands’ names were changed to correctly reflect the change in situation, the band hadn’t quite started yet. As it turned out, the minor delay was due to their singer feeling not-quite-brilliant. She didn’t let that stop them, though, and give a strong (if a little subdued) performance, so kudos to her for that. Her strong singing style didn’t seem much diminished by the situation, and the rest of the band certainly didn’t hold back. Theirs is a tight, fast-ticking brand of rock; mostly uptempo stuff overlaid with the sort of playful, ticklish guitar that populates math rock-like genres, backed up and contrasted with a chugging, strong-armed guitar. In some form of miraculous coincidence, the two guitarists have contrasting styles that match up almost perfectly with the styles of the two original guitarists from Shotgun Politics, Niall and Timmy, who were also last year’s Planetrox winners…Witchcraft, I say!!!
In nearly every song, there’s a bit that has chorused, echoey, dream-like guitars ostensibly substituting for the guitar solo. It’s the sort that was played right when New Wave began emerging as a genre; they’re more departures into that undulating guitar tone rather that the tone dominating the entire song. Which is (like everything when I look at it, so you just can’t win!) a double-edged sword; they don’t commit the dream pop/shoegaze sin of preferring form to substance, but the transitions to and from these sections are often rickety segues (as Frank Zappa put it), such as on Better This Way. The song generally, I find, pulls in a few different directions, but the tension between them is discomfiting rather than pleasing. Also, the drums which were quite engagingly groovy for most of the song somehow disappear from there in the chorus; I’m not sure whether it was just the miking or an artefact of the night, but I found that a little jarring.
But, they also have some solidly-constructed songs, like Teenage Kicks that was somehow simultaneously punky and dream-like (and for people who think like I do, it sounds nothing like the song of the same name by The Undertones, so don’t let that jar you like it did me). Game was another good number which had a really catchy bridge (and also had the slightly odd quality of sounding vaguely like a Bond theme song; or, perhaps, a piss-take of one) and an awesome breakdown towards the end. In their best moments they fall somewhere between a more punky Dinosaur Jr. and the Foo Fighters during their “There is Nothing Left to Lose” phase. Which, I’d say, is a pretty good place to be, and certainly a good place to start building their own unique sound.
— Shashwati Kala

Turing Apples由五人於2012年組成,成員包括Nicola , Ali, Rafe和Latif,亦是當晚唯一一隊是女主音的樂隊。他們被指是玩dirty indie rock,可他們會把自己的音樂風格定位為「Nerd Rock」﹐他們亦在今年於網上發佈了第一張EP。主音Nicola當晚抱病上陣,需坐著演唱,但她的穩定性仍維持得不錯。另外結他的groove能有效地帶出歌曲的氣氛。唯其中一兩首的sharp cut收尾讓筆者感覺有點突然,但對歌曲的整體感覺影響不大,編曲和彈奏技巧等非常不俗,每首歌曲都有突出不同的樂器,分配得算是平均,總的來說,Turing Apples絕對是具有潛力的樂隊。
– Sidick ​Lam

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