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

sand band - Shards

4/9/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Sand Band

Shards
self-released; 2015


3.6 out of 5

By J Simpson



Now here's a slimy, spiky, scuzzball offering! 

Sand Band is a "math punk" band from Wellington, New Zealand, and Shards is their inaugural outing. Now what, you may ask, is "math punk" and how can scuzzball be used as a compliment?

Math punk might be considered math rock - brainy, largely instrumental music, made up of intricate arrangements in non-traditional time signatures - viewed through a vaz-soaked lens, blurring the outlines, flattening dimensions. Math punk could be the sound of Death Grips, attempting to cover Meshuggah, or a John Dwyer side project with Brian Chippendale and a bunch of Ghanaian Revolutionaries. It's got the same energy and ambition as math rock, but delivered in a hasty, non-conformist fashion. 

Who remembers when metal was mean, when punk was weird and smart and edgy, and was liable to get your ass kicked? When jazz was the sound of revolution, as African Americans created their own classicism, on the spot and out of thin air?
Underground music has a tendency to both foster unconventional musical tastes and approaches, but at the same time, incorporating everything into a safe, polite hegemony that ultimately yanks the fangs of everything one admires. One revolution after another is assimilated, and turned into a lifestyle accessory for rich college kids. 

A lot of the threat has been removed from jazz-tinged, instrumental music, so in that, I thank the chthonian deities for Sand Band, and the like. They take us back to the first time hearing music like John Zorn, or the insanely intricate polyrhythmic blast of Dillinger Escape Plan, blending the two. While Zorn's jazz attack was largely freeform and emotive, favoring expression and risk over structure, while Dillinger was so rigid they were hardly even human. Sand Band strikes a balance between the poles. 

Shards sounds pretty raw and rough, like it was laid straight to tape, lacking a bit of the depth and warmth you might hear on a widescreen major release, but that's par for the course. This is the sound of basements, the sound of sweating cinderblocks, of staying awake too long, jacked up on stress and a mission from Loki. On music like Shards, I sometimes prefer the roughshod. 

Sand Band also get props for being only two guys, Jay van DijkJay and Liam Madgwick, who belt out a real cacophony with only guitar and drums. I'm totally smitten with their guitar tone - a spiky, trebly gelatinous lava flow - for the drums to dance their pagan revels around. I can't find info on who plays what, but the drummer is ABSOLUTELY SICK! A deft touch, light on the snare, like a platoon of sugar plum fairies tap dancing with hobnail boots across a stainless steel cobweb, while the guitar gets paranoid and gibbers in the corner.

The majority of Shards is instrumental, so fans of wordless music will probably get the most out of the listening. For those that have grown bored of jazz, who can't stand one more stoic, square-shouldered apathetic indie show, climb on this Ship Of Fools right now! 

Recommended for fans of: Lightning Bolt, John Zorn, Zeni Gava, Don caballero
Become A Fan
Tweet
0 Comments

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

    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    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