The Half Rabbits
Disclaimer Sampler
The Half Rabbits are currently making waves on the Oxford music scene and seem to be doing a good job of getting noticed by some influential types a bit further afield. However, if, like me, you’ve not actually heard their music yet, you’ll also be wondering what all the fuss is about. However, unlike me, you may not have heard the timely rustle of the jiffy-bagged CD squeezing through a stiff letter-box.
The briefest of spins will introduce you to the highly-wired sound of this band. A certain amount of randomness adds to a hectic rock sound in contrast to the vocal, which has rightly been compared to Jim Morrison but that also has some Bowie accents mingled in.
‘Evolution’ opens the sampler and will get an instant love or hate reaction with its unhinged guitars and stuttered drumming style. The song itself has elements that you’d expect in any record, like a verse and a chorus and something of a break, but the delivery is right on the edge due to the individual style applied to the guitars. The vocal is a commanding lower register that weaves around the other instrumentation with contrasting smoothness.
With the addition of some space-computer synth sounds, ‘Fast Breeder Reactor’ has a calmer verse but retains all the strangeness of the opener with spikey random notes and hurried guitars. This track is from the same mould as ‘Evolution’, with a couple of finishing touches making the difference.
Final track, ‘Quiet Ones’, is pushed along by a satisfyingly fat distorted bass line and is, on the whole, a darker sounding affair than the other two songs – although having heard either of them, you’d be able to name the band in under five seconds.
The Half Rabbits are like the Kaiser Chiefs without the pop, the Sisters of Mercy without the goth, or the Smashing Pumpkins on a day when they can’t keep the same chord going for more than a second and the chaos inherent to their music is as good a trademark you could hope for.
It looks like ‘Despair’ will contain plenty of interesting goings on for those who want something off the beaten track.
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