When God dished out bad band names, the horrifically titled Homeostatic Picnic Races surely came first in line. I'm now sure what HPR is, stands for or how it came about, but it's really, really bad. Poor name aside, this isn't too bad - it's very generic and predictable, although well done, so the signs are there suggesting the band could go onto better things with a few tweaks here and there.
I'm not entirely sure if HPR want to be Motion City Soundtrack or Trophy Scars and their sound often drifts in between the two. At times the keyboards swirl and the samples are jazzy with a disco-style backing, while at others the shouting and screams attempt to make the blood curdle, yet don't quite hit the spot. They're neither catchy enough to be MCS, nor spazzy or chaotic enough to be Trophy Scars, placing them in a limbo-esque state of affairs where it's not quite known how the band eventually want to be defined.
The tracks here are well constructed and well recorded, so no complaints there, but it's just a mash up of two different styles that doesn't work all that well. It should work better but the end product doesn't meet the sum of its parts. What HPR need to do -aside from changing that ghastly name - is to work out what type of band they want to be and stick to it, rather than drifting in and out of different styles. Only then will they see the potential benefits.
ps - Juvenile EP names don't help the cause either...
paul
