Drop The Ball - Time Spent Travelling Is Not Time Wasted LP

Hear The Track Here

First one out of the box this month is a request that I got through the RebelRiffs blog and it seems to have been around for ages, which just goes to show how long the list is becoming... Enough of my travails though, let's say hi to West Midlands based Drop The Ball who were kind enough to let me get a full copy of their Time Spent Travelling Is Not Wasted LP. Four of the tracks are in the Myspace link I have provided although you may be able to hear the whole thing at their Bandcamp site. Drop The Ball are a completely new name to me who, apparently, are supposed to sound a little like Weezer and that's no bad thing in my books. The band are Pete Stanley (gtr/vocals), Dan Watts (gtr/vocals), Luke Fewtrell-Bowers (bass/vocals) and Gaz McCabe (drums) who do appear to be a live, gigging band as well as a net presence.

Multi-tasking, gotta love that.

I'm a big fan of the ol' kerrangg in music, but that often proves to be a mixed blessing in situations like these because I know - beyond all doubt - what it should sound like, this is music I grew up making. I am therefore, typically harsher when reviewing this type of material. Now that we've raised a nervous sweat in the Drop The Ball camp, let me say it isn't necessary because this LP is a pretty decent effort, although I'm struggling with the Weezer thing (although Fracture The Waves comes close). Anyway, can't say that I was particularly impressed with We Are Kinetic and given that this was the first track, that isn't good. Not sure if this is an eight track recording but it sure sounds like it, but hey as an example of what the band is capable it more than fills the bill. As someone who is a big fan of the newer hard rock bands, this is right up my street, if a little rough and ready around the edges and as someone used to listening to 'demo' type material, I don't see much wrong with it.

Songwise, the four tracks that reside on the Myspace page - Fracture The Waves, Corpus, 1000 and Five, Five Five - are definitely the most together in terms of song and performance, Corpus at high volume is i-n-t-e-n-s-e and reminds me somewhat of Slade in the frenzied vocals. What these four tracks show, although not the others sadly, show that this probably would have been much better off as an EP would maybe score better points because of that. However, as I say, the material is rough, almost punk-like at times and there are some quite noticeable vocal glitches happening but I guess this is a young band and such things are to be expected. Nonetheless, two important questions: do they REALLY rock and is there something special in this mixture? Start off with Corpus and Facture The Waves and if you get something out of them, I'm sure you can find things of value in the other tracks too. Definitely a band to keep an eye on because when it clicks, they will be powerful and nuanced.

Recommended (if slightly demo-ish) rock of the old school.