Over the course of their career, Germans Belasco have sold 30,000 CDs and played with bands such as Iggy Pop, Paul Weller, PJ Harvey and the Cardigans – even though they sound like none of the above. With airplay on Steve Lamacq, Zane Lowe and Steve Crowley on Radio 1 already, the Germans have teamed up with Lockjaw in this country to release ‘Something Between Us‘, their first UK release. To be fair it’s not a bad record – there’s a Gavin Rossdale-esque tint to the vocals and while there are some angular guitars there are some hard-hitting melodies too.
During the album’s title track the band stretch their range to sound more like Muse or early Radiohead, although this isn’t really indicative of the band as a whole. While those types of band are obvious reference points, the band have that kind of post-hardcore sound which I assume is the reason Radio 1 have given them some play. The acoustic strummings of ‘The Hunters Song’ stand out, while ‘Summer’ and ‘Little White Sharks‘ are also strong. Truth be told this isn’t something I would usually go out and buy, but Belasco do thier thing well and are well worth sampling if you’re at a loose end this Christmas.
www.myspace.com/belascoband
Paul