Exeter has a pretty good scene right now. Not only is the Cavern Club one of the best venues in the UK, but the number of bands coming out of the city is on the up. Whether it’s Shoe! or the youthful (and rather dumb) exuberance of Brat, bands are coming out of the woodwork and making an impact on a national scale. After a MSN chat with Jim over at Punknews, he recommended Tyler to me, a local band who he said were well worth a listen. He kindly sent me a copy of their ‘Information About The Fire’ EP and on that recommendation I eagerly gave it a whirl. Just I’m not sure if I like it.
Tyler apear to me to be more about the music than the songs, if that makes sense. Brooding EP opener ‘You Feel Bad But You Know You Did Your Best’ takes nigh on three minutes before the vocals begin, and they’re whispery at that, with a mix of delicate guitar parts and drums lapping over an introspective bass riff. The song continues to intertwine and wrap itself around the musical parts and layers and John Hannon has certainly done a good job in putting everything together. As a piece of music it’s very good, as a song it frustrates because it doesn’t seem to ever get started. Maybe it would work better in a more visceral and primal live form but recorded this ‘art’ doesn’t do the trick for me.
The EP’s title track is more song based, but even then there are numerous musical parts that appear to contain several themes and thoughts. Tyler would probably carve a very good career in writing film scores, their music broods and creates a wide range of emotions without ever really needing a vocalist to express them. It’s good if you like that sort of thing – the tenderness of the cello during the song would fit lovingly into the sad part of a film score for example. When this builds up with a guitar riff the fires burn inside the belly of the song, but the crescendo never really comes and ultimately leaves verything a little flat and deflating. ‘Second Best’ is the record’s final moment, again brooding it’s way through for possibly too long before the music actually goes somewhere. Maybe I’ve become impatient, maybe the fast-food lifestyle where everything comes packaged in 3-minute slots has got to me…it’s just reviewing this record you wait and wait. And wait. And you wait still, thinking that the goodness will come and make that wait worthwhile. But it doesn’t, the beats and tempo changes like the start of a new song, yet stick together like a cohesive unit to create a good piece of music. But it’s art, it’s not a song and I just don’t ‘get’ it.
It’s art Jim, but not as we know it. Fourteen minutes of cracking musicianship, just somewhere along the line it has crossed the line between going up your own arse and coming out somewhere else. Cleverly written musical pieces, but not something that immediately captures my imagination.
Paul