fell
**1/2
Yet another wintery summer day and the latest review couldn’t have been more appropriate Vane of Barbs new EP Fell. Beautifully packaged with an intriguing winter themed artwork…I had to put a jumper on.
First track “Science Without Humanity” is slightly polarising. It is easy to see where the inspiration lies and it seems to have a bit of an avant-garde jazz sound going on. I’m guessing it is meant to be a little loose hence the slightly hiccupy drums, something that continues throughout all the tracks.
At the conclusion of the first track I went on the line to do a little more research about Vane of Barbs and it appears their live shows are intertwined with some pretty spectacular visual accompaniment, which helps to understand this release a little better in terms of the musical direction.
The title track “Fell” stands out as the more radio friendly of the five songs, being really well constructed with some very lush vocals from Bianca Carbone. Very cool and flowing bass lines help you to feel this one, and it would make a great background track for a café or the like.
It seems that Vane of Barbs have gone to great expense in creating this release, and whilst it looks stunning and has some great elements, I can’t help but feel they missed the mark a little on this one. With an understanding of the overall package including visual elements it’s easier to see how this release would sit alongside the visual; to me this package would have benefited from being released in a DVD film format. By the quality of the release, a lot of money has been put into making it and it may have been worth waiting a little longer or trading some of this expense off to incorporate the two (music and visuals), which ultimately seem to be an integral aspect of what Vane of Barbs are trying to achieve.
Seeing this live would be a great experience and I think that with all the elements together it would be an awesome live show to witness. Or maybe it’s just me and I need to find some jazz cigarettes.
Also printed in Bside Magazine 2 April 2015