Unmasking St Minver,
Day of Rising
Right. You know the drill. Me being a Punktastic writer biases me towards Punktastic Recordings acts, yadda, yadda, I don’t give a crap. I write what I honestly think, end of.
For a start, you’ve got to give credit to Day of Rising. They packed their bags and upped sticks to London, not knowing what they’d find, after building a solid fanbase in Spain. And it has to be said the raw enthusiasm to accompany such a move comes across in this EP, especially in opening track ‘High hopes and empty homes’. It packs in elements of college rock, wistfully low-fi indie vocals, and a snappy crunch on the guitars. It’s how I think early Audio Karate would sound if they took on an indier slant and swapped ideas with Jimmy Eat World and Nural, and upped the ante in terms of the smoothness on the production of the vocals. The guys don’t always articulate their consonants, and that adds to the vocals’ flowing nature as the three-way harmonies are exchanged.
It’s clichéd to say a band sits between a couple of genres, but Day of Rising probably sit between three. It means you’re likely to find an aspect of their music you will warm to, but in my experience it also meant it took a few listens to relate to its style. If I’d have graded this after one listen, it would have scored a star less than it did. But this is one of those EPs where you notice background subtleties on listens two, three, and four. And I like that.
There’s a burning desire at the heart of this record; its followed the band from the south of Europe to the north, and shows no sign of abandoning them. And whilst it continues to be harnessed and expressed, you’ve got to say that they’ve got a chance of making a reasonable success of themselves.
» Listen on Myspace
