ACB hail from North West London, whilst this is my home territory I have not heard of this melodically fuelled skate-punk outfit before; maybe I should get out more as, surprisingly, they’re not at all bad. This 5 track E.P gives a good indication as to what the band are all about.
Furthermore, opening track and cunningly titled, ‘Introduction’, gives a more accurate portrayal of what to expect from this band; picky lead guitar riffs and strong backing riffs, well as strong as your average skate punk can get from what sounds like a budget recording; which brings me onto the fact that throughout the release I can’t help but feel that what’s mainly letting this E.P down is the production. I won’t dwell on this though as there certainly is a lot of promise here spread across the handful of tracks.
‘Any Other Way’ gives the first taste of vocals and again they show promise. I’m picking up a vibe of somewhere between Matt Skiba in places with hints of Brian Molko in others, with a Joey Cape feel overall. Anyway it all leads to a unique vocal styling which is something I can’t compliment enough in the current ‘UK band trying to sound American and badly at that’ climate.
Whilst I would say this is melodic skate punk, it clearly has influences further a field with the odd heavy breakdown and a tambourine making an appearance on ‘Mr Burroughs’. All in all, this isn’t a bad release by any means. I wouldn’t have thought the majors will be queuing up to sign these guys just yet, but it’s above all else a great starting point for the band to work from as there is a lot of good ideas and a good sound on show, but there is evidently room for improvement.
Mike
