Tuesday 20 November 2012

SHIELDS - Kaleidoscope

          Ask for a the name of an artist from Newcastle and the first answer you'll probably get is the talentless disgrace that is Cheryl Cole. Well now, the city has a new band it can be truly proud of in the form of the fantastic Shields. The Synth-pop group released their brilliant debut EP Kaleidoscope this week to many positive reviews and these are fully deserved. From the first hearings of their taking on SBTRKT's Pharaoh's  this band are here to excite and this is exactly what they do. The bands influences include Everything Everything and Metronomy and it's obvious to see their effect in Shields' music.
           The first song taken from Kaleidoscope is called 'Mezzanine', a  pop tune with catchy riffs and excellent vocal harmonies. Music that sticks in your head from the start is usually good music and this is no exception. This song is not too deep, it's fun and it's fresh, features that many new alternative music severely lacks as the indie/alternative revolution tries to gain momentum away from manufactured, x-factor based garbage that we currently have to put up with on our radio stations. While the song itself is a piece of art, the video for the song is also the work of creative geniuses. You can see the video below, believe you me, you'll probably think it's cute as well as amazing to match the song. 

        'Miserly', the second song on the EP is equally as magic vocally and instrumentally as Mezzanine. This song has attitude though and a bit more punch to it and could easily be heard in the early hours of a slowed-down party with it's disco sounds. 'Turning corners', my least favourite song personally on the EP however, it's more a case of the least greatest of the great songs on the record. It's still a brilliant song with an excellent input of piano for many periods of the song. 'Silhouette', a slower song which is a little more serious than the rest of the tracks that can be heard in terms of vocal tones and lyrics. I love it though and again it's a song that is not hard to remember for all of the good reasons. 'Momentum' is the aptly named final track from Kaleidoscope, something that the band are building a lot of. I can see this band making it big, not everybody enjoys big, anthematic, guitar riffs anymore when they look for a new alternative band to like. So if that's you, Shields are great for you. As I earlier said this band is fun and fresh. An exceptional example of what you can achieve with a bit of creativity and a different approach to music. Definetly watch out for SHIELDS in the future.

Follow them on twitter: 

@BehindShields

            

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