Chin Music were formed after Neil (Not Katies) and Jon (Working Lunch with Lucky Goldstar), created the quartet with Ali and Stella to add yet another name to the Punktastic database and yet another band vying for the publics attention. While it isn’t as appealing as you may expect with the first couple of listens, it certainly grows on you within time and is a great base for the band to grow from if they wish to put the name on more peoples lips.
The angle Chin Music put on their sound is quite simple. They make sure the basics are achieved to a more than competent level and use that as the foundation to build from there. Although all four tracks are good, there is however something that is stopping them from being great. The band is in its infancy and the signs of what is possible are there, but for the moment it lacks a degree of charisma, but having heard previous bands finest efforts, I’m sure it will come in time. Opener ‘Overboard’ is the highlight though as a slow chundering opening is brought to life with an absolutely corking chorus that is as good as anything I have heard this year. From here though it doesn’t quite flow as well as you may hope as the certain roads they can take are avoided and the songs tend to get a little lost and struggle to find their feet. These lost chances are non-more apparent on the sluggish ‘Chinese Burns’ which never really moves out of 2nd gear, but the sound is quickly picked up with ‘Mantra’, a finely crafted piece of up tempo rock which reminds you of Hot Rod Circuit in their prime. It ends with the neither here nor there ‘Choking on Dust’ which earns the quartet points once again when the pace is picked up, but otherwise fails to dazzle.
While the music played isn’t genre breaking or rule bending, it is played efficiently enough and the seeds are certainly sewn for the coming year. How far the band can go up the UK ladder is yet to be seen and if they can continue the immense catchability of the like of ‘Overboard’ the future may yet be bright for a band in its relative infancy. They may have a head start on some of their peers due to their pasts, but they are certainly not using that as a right for people to listen to their music, and with a bit of fine tuning here and there, the music should be doing the talking for them in no time.
Jay
www.chinmusicrocks.co.uk
