«No Quarter» «LoudSilence/TenderViolence» review
http://www.myspace.com/noquartersu
New album of Saint-Petersburg band «No Quarter» summarized band’s materials for the latest few years.
It begins with the older tracks, included in EP «Loud Silence». «Interstellar», «La Dernière Fois», «Frozen» and «Starlines Intersecting» have keyboard main themes: classic piano in «Interstellar», «Frozen» and «Starlines Intersecting» and synth in «La Dernière Fois». «Interstellar» and «Starlines Intersecting» are also amplified with nice guitar and synth violin themes. Attentive listener can catch a simple tune witch unites these 4 tracks, but in each case develops in its own melody. In appeasing «Euthanasie» and a little bit sad «Spearmint and juicy fruit» guitar comes on the foreground in music constituent aspect.
Second part is a little bit more synth. «Himmelsweit» and «November» are autumn wistful compositions with guitar lead tune and electronic accompaniment. «Spearmint v.2» is revised version of «Spearmint and juicy fruit» with mix variation of synth piano. «Exhale» and «Ordeal» have peculiar synthetic tunes, and «Entropy» is a strange composition concluding the album which will definitely provoke some Star Wars Universe fan’s nostalgia.
It also should be noted that in lyric’s aspect the album is a small present for linguistic surprises fans’ community. There are songs in English, French and – sic! – in Czech.
Some monotony of sound is major blemish of this album and especially the monotony of vocals, it is not too eloquent and sometimes really makes fall asleep. At times music really needs more drive. But on the other hand, it makes album atmosphere more unified.
In total, «L.S.T.V.» is on the point of being pleasure for your ear by melodic sound with interesting synth/classic piano and guitar parts, usual for post-punk sound bass and heartfelt vocals. It isn’t at all a dance floor format of music, but I think it can catch devotees of leisurely and thoughtful music listening during long dark evenings fancy.
Grade: 6.5/10
Nikolay ‘Tacitus’ Polyakov
Grave Jibes Fanzine
