Insight & Critique
  • DAC
  • Indie Music Album Reviews
  • About
  • Submissions
  • Top albums
  • Features
  • Contact

Cedarsmoke - False Start To The Race

6/30/2016

1 Comment

 
Picture
Cedarsmoke

False Start To The Race
self-released; 2016

​3.9 out of 5

By Jamie Robash

​
I don’t know much about Brisbane, Australia’s Cedarsmoke. So I apologize if this review comes off a bit Law & Order-ish, a show which I can’t claim to have ever seen an entire episode of but have only caught bits and pieces of in places like bars, hospital waiting rooms and the occasional visit to the nursing home back a ways when my grandparents were still alive.

What I do know is that Cedarsmoke plays a form of down tempo psych-infused indie rock that is easily palatable. Their curt bio describes their six-song EP (is it their debut? third? fifth?) False Start to the Rat Race as “six songs played by five people, recorded live.” And bravo to such an interesting and witty title as False Start to the Rat Race which offers a few clues to the mystery of which we are about to delve into.

​For what is the “rat race” but a comical analogy for most of the world’s daily life? We wake. We rush to punch the clock in order to be able to fill our lives with the countless amounts of trash being thrown at us. The forty-plus-hour work week pays for our comfortable beds, our expensive drinks, our virtual realities which helps us escape from our real ones. They provide a momentary escape from the plebeian doldrums many of us find ourselves in; are you living to work or just working to live?

This seems to be the question asked on “Wasteland Blues” the opening track of False Start to the Rat Race. Ethereal and angry guitars mesh with the opening lyrics “It’s a small world if you have big dreams / But all I want is a shirt on my back and a place to sleep / I don’t need to own land I won’t have time to roam,”  sung by…let’s call him X (I have by this point abandoned my detective show gig and going along with something a little more off the cuff. Think of this as a Shakespearean aside and bear with me. A rose by any other name and all that…).

The sweet and catchy yet superfluously noisy “Hollow” our friend X with his angsty and scratchy vocals sounds like a man that has just woken up and hasn’t had coffee yet. He also sounds like he has been screaming all night and now, still trying to venerate himself is stumbling around trying to get his point across. Behind all this wandering madness is a synthesizer that sounds like a four thousand strong child choir and delicious drum fills, and a waterfall of effects-the fuck out- guitars. Old X doesn’t disappoint on the drunken and spacey rant of “Just Say So” a song I felt myself taking to heart. Here X, (yes we’re at it again with this) gets down to it, calling it out with “why don’t you just say so.” Easier said than done my friend as you probably know.

​False Start to the Rat Race is a record filled with tumultuousness of every kind. It’s an ode, a paean to what many of us feel; the world is shit but we’re not ready to die yet so we’re just gonna keep dealing until we do. It’s fun and angst ridden and pretty rocking. If you’ve ever begun a sentence with “I hate…” give False Start to the Rat Race a few moments of your time.
Tweet
1 Comment
Jesse
10/15/2016 12:55:44 am

Great lp. Not a track I don't like!

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

       Critique/insight

    We are dedicated to informing the public about the different types of independent  music that is available for your listening pleasure as well as giving the artist a professional critique from a seasoned music geek. We critique a wide variety of niche genres like experimental, IDM, electronic, ambient, shoegaze and much more.

    Tweets by divideanconqer
    Are you one of our faithful visitors who enjoys our website? Like us on Facebook


    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012

Company

About
Contributors

Newsletter

Newsletter
Book Your Band

© Divide and Conquer 2021. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • DAC
  • Indie Music Album Reviews
  • About
  • Submissions
  • Top albums
  • Features
  • Contact