Adzuki – Transitions

This is a 5 track EP from the band with an average age of 17. You would never have guessed their age from this effort – they portray a considerable amount of maturity in their music and nothing about them suggests that they are of a younger age than anyone else on the Mighty Atom roster. They play good, exciting rock music and are definitely on to something quite special.

When you listen to Adzuki you don’t just pass them off as another average Rock band in this scene of mediocrity – you can see that the band have great talent, and have some individuality about them that makes them stand out from the pack. Adzuki are a band with character – their songs actually mean something to you and speak out to you – a lot of bands seem to fail to do this. This band are definitely going to be a band to look out for in the future and most certainly will become Kerrang favourites at some stage or another. The vocals here are really spot on, with vocalist Dan obviously putting his all in to them and creating a sound, which is really quite special, and truly enjoyable. There are also some truly inspring guitar riffs, some pounding bass lines, and drumming that really stands out. Being a drummer myself I can often look at bands drumming abilities as a crucial point – so the fact that Adzuki have such a talent hitting the skins gives me even more reason to love this band. There is not a single track on this EP that is at all dull, or uninteresting – every single one of these tracks is a gem in its own right and could quite easily be released as a single.

I really did enjoy listening to this band and will definitely be checking them out in the future as at the tender age of seventeen I am sure that there will be a lot more to come from this band with them ever improving and increasing in confidence as they play more and more live shows. If I get the opportunity I will definitely be travelling to check this band out live to see how they cope in the setting of a gig as they are great on CD but the true test is in the live performance. Do they have what it takes to become the next big thing in the next couple of years? I think they just might.

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Inside The Mind Of Henry Holmes – Breaking Bridges, Burning Wishes

ITMOHH are an experimental rock band that are based in Kent and on the 3 tracks on display in this demo the band show some great promise. Although the songs don’t always sound amazing, the band are definitely giving it a good go and are certainly not following any sort of trend. The band try out new things – and this is great as when it works the band really do sound good, but when it doesn’t they can sometimes sound a bit messy.

On first track, ‘Breaking Bridges’ I do no think that the shouts really fit in that well, however on the second and third tracks the bands hardcore vocals really work well and make ‘Shallow’ and ‘Cenotaph Falling’ sound really quite special. The band mix Rock and Metal, with Stoner, and add in to their music elements of Jazz and Funk in order to give it those all important finishing touches. I like what the band are doing on this CD and would definitely see them live at some point in Kent and check them out in the flesh. The band have some great bass lines, epic guitar riffs, and cool drumming that is nicely paced and really suits the music at all times. The music goes from calm to mental at the flick of a switch and this really works well in creating a sound that is truly original and like nothing else that anyone else out there is creating at the moment. I love the bands screaming vocals and fast paced musicianship – this is certainly something they can work with in the future and use on the album to make it sound truly rocking.

ITMOHH are definitely creating music that is original, but on the first track at times it can be a bit too original and not sound too good in places. I am glad that the band are Kent based as it means that I can regularly check them out and witness them grow as a band – this should be really fun to see as the band gradually come in to their own. ITMOHH have a lot of material that they can work on and make it sound really good if they put in the time and effort. It will be interesting to see how the bands album turns out as this EP hints at something special but never really truly explodes.

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Hotwired Radio – Volume 1

Ok, as far as compilation CDs go – this one is a pretty shoddy attempt! Its not that they didn’t get any good bands to go on the CD, its just that they really haven’t organised it at all well and there really is no running order to the CD whatsoever. This compilation was thrown together the day of the launch party for the CD so it had to be cobbled together in a couple of hours and pressed off without really giving it much thought.

There are 18 bands here and listening to the CD in running order will almost certainly make you cringe as none of the tracks follow on at all and it all just becomes a bit of a mess. The first track that comes on is Sparehed3 – this is quite an impressive track. There are some strong vocals, bass lines and riffs that really power the song home – trouble is there is about a 10 second period of nothing at the end of the track which really disrupts the CDs flow almost straight away. The next track is then a lot quieter than the first and you will have to alter the volume on the CD just to be able to hear The Mono Effect. Aside from the poor production of this CD – there are a few good tracks that really stand out to me to be quite good. As I have already mentioned, the Sparehed3 track is quite impressive and I will definitely be checking them out again but other bands that really appealed to me were Itch, Kneehigh, and Atticus. Problem is, I had already heard all of these bands CDs before so although the tracks found quite impressive – I had already heard them before so it was nothing new to me. This is not the fault of Hotwired as its not as if they made the compilation CD to impress me but the fact a lot of the bands I truly enjoyed I had heard the tracks before made it even harder to really enjoy the compilation. However, there was another track which really stood out to me – this being the band Angry Boy. I liked what this band were all about and think that the track that they have on this compilation CD is really quite cool and well worth a listen. It is called ‘Routine Something’ and really is quite a remarkable tune and I truly enjoyed listening to it.

I think this CD has now sold out – so you will not be able to get a copy of it but you will be able to listen to past shows that the songs will appear on if you go on to the Hotwired website. If you are looking to broaden your CD collection then bands of sound investment are definitely Angry Boy, Sparehed3, Itch, Kneehigh, and Atticus.

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