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Trim the Barber | Words: Dave Nicholls
Formed from a sense of despair at the alienation and devolution of
modern life, Trim The Barber are set to release their self-titled
debut EP in April of this year, and it promises to be something
pretty damned epic. Already known for explosively loud audio-visual
live performances, the band have been playing all over the UK,
forming their sound and crafting their tracks to perfection ready to
unleash them on the world. As such, when guitarist Paddy dropped me a
line, how could I refuse the chance to check them out?
All We
Can Be doesn’t really give a lot away about the style of the band
as it opens, sounding like a combination of early punk and dark
gothic influences, all pinned together with a strange sense of
melody. The mix which opens the track soon begins to fade into a
deeper track, the sound seeming to grow as it progresses and making
you question exactly what you’re hearing. What’s most striking
here is that the band aren’t following a convention, they’re not
basing their music on any one genre, instead allowing it to build
into its own unique sound and packing a punch as it goes. Deep,
powerful and strangely addictive, there’s an almost hypnotic
quality about things here, somehow managing to draw you into the dark
melee of elements and making you want to know what’s coming
next.
Now The Joke Is On You marks a significant change on the
EP, this time launching into a sludgy riff fuelled track, once again
harking to the origins of punk yet firmly stamping their own sound on
it. Catchy whilst somehow still unconventional, this track is one
which seems to be crafted for the live scene, packing enough punch to
get the crowd involved yet enough catchiness to get everyone singing
along after a couple of listens. For me, the most striking moment on
this track was the mid-section featuring the guitar solo, not for the
solo but for the mix which formed, the music changed into an
atmospheric mix, grabbing your attention once again and renewing that
question in your mind about how they’re going to follow it! The
answer to the question is presented in Free Falling, another track
which airs on the stranger side of things yet still somehow manages
to work to continue the EP forwards. Basing the track around the
vocals, there’s once again a sense of darkness flowing through this
one, adopting a sound which nods towards their influences, yet still
presents us with moments of questionable progression. Elements like a
wood block are thrown in, bongos, dual vocal lines and string synth
sound, they’re all here and somehow make this track work, yet quite
honestly, it shouldn’t. Despite the strange combination, this is
actually a seriously high point on the EP, and a track which I would
highly advise you to check out.
Always Delayed closes the EP
and once again, raises a question in my mind – where did this come
from. Launching head first into a distorted yet melodic mix of
guitars and rumbling bass, there’s once again different elements
thrown in all over the place to craft a track which harks back to the
likes of The Cure. If you’ve ever wondered what post-punk sounds
like then this is about as close as you’re going to get, it’s a
sound which oozes with the smog of London yet somehow still manages
to sound fresh and new, updated almost.
What you’ve got here
is an EP which isn’t going to appeal to everyone, but to those that
it does it’s going to mark a moment of sheer genius. The tracks
aren’t the sort of thing you can whack into a genre, and this is
what makes the EP so special. There’s influences everywhere, sounds
which you think you recognise, moments which confuse you and catchy
lines which you want to sing along to, all combined with music which
is at times dark and foreboding whilst at others, light and sunny. I
don’t know that I fully understand this EP, nor am I sure that it’s
the sort of thing I’d listen to a lot, but I know that I’ll come
back to it at some point, just to make sure I still appreciate how
incredible music can sound when the musicians making it want to work
on something unique.
To find out more about Trim The Barber,
check out their Facebook page HERE.
