With my hopes high of some kind of ‘Evening with’ John Malkovich’ quickly dashed, I set about listening to the lunatic sounds of the band and I am still no more clear as to what they set out to do, why they do it and what it is all about. But I quite like it though.
There was once a day when I would have described the type of music Malkovich play as something different, to a certain extent even ground breaking. But as of late that oft-familiar sound of crashing guitars coming at you from every angle coupled with unintelligible screams is becoming more and more the norm as bands seek out the next niche market to corner in time to become one of the pioneers of said sound. That is not to say Malkovich are one of these bands, but it is becoming increasingly common for us here at Punktastic to test run such bands, and now it is the turn of the Reflections five piece.
Of the trio of tracks present, all adhere to what you may expect, save for the rather gawdy and shite song names (Which incidentally feature on all of their releases), but more of that later. Actually, fuck it, opener ‘017’ (Here we go) brings us into an incredibly catchy guitar hook that stamps its mark from start to finish while a particularly impressive slowing of the pace towards the climatic ending closes it all good and well. ‘024’ (Sigh) is next up with distinctly better song structure taking the shine off the opening number, with the vocals in particular proving a lasting memory. Final track ‘030’ (Give me strength) ends it on a distinctly different note to how we started as it churns and grinds its way through the 2.46 running time, but doesn’t quite have the lasting of its two predecessors as the sound seems a little forced and doesn’t flow quite as freely.
The appeal of Malkovich lies in the listener wanting something a little different from the norm and once again Reflections have come up trumps and played a card a little different. Whether this proves to be a suitable springboard for the bands forthcoming album ‘A Criminal Record’ remains to be seen but for the moment this EP will do them little disadvantage at all.
Jay
www.iammalkovich.com
Reflections Records
