Band Of Asians - Enemies

Hear The Track Here

I think it would be fair to say that I am a 'soft' reviewer. Oh I carry a lot of venom right enough, but I'm not known for ejaculating it willy nilly. What really does it for me is music that just - no matter which way you slice and dice it - doesn't cut it. As music, as background noise, as anything. Very, very few artists have ever come close to making me spell it out to them. In the case of the Band Of Asians, they made me do it twice. Perennial survivor Patrick Lew (aka BOA and others) is not one to be fobbed off lightly though. This is a man on a mission, and his mission is to spread his music far and wide... OK, now let's take a breath, step back a bit and ponder on this first paragraph.

If, we muse, the music is so dreadful, what is the point?

Well, surely that's what this about more than anything else. Anyone who thinks they are likely to get rich and famous doing what we do, has got to be from another planet. We're here to have fun right, even raucous, cacaphonic fun? Weell, yes, but only just. Enemies is a track recorded (thankfully) in a real studio, so the usual painful experience of listening to their extremely lo-fi home recordings is at least averted. Whats comes across in the studio version is a much more coherent sound, even if the content is often not always the same.

Band Of Asians specialise in a form of guitar grunge and Patrick says 'Cory plays bass and lead guitar. Dave played drums. I did 75% of the guitar parts except the leads'. All well and good. The backline, bass and drums is fairly sturdy and a good bed for the guitar caterwauling that usually goes on top of grungy backlines. And that's where it falls apart somewhat. It's not a song per se, more like an extended guitar workout which is fine when it meshes but not so fine when it doesn't. There are noticeable out of time sections and the whole track has a stop-start quality to it. Mind you, its far better than anything I have experienced from this artist before and now I see what they are getting at.

Hey, it's a start I guess...