Wednesday 24 July 2013

Bangladeafy "The Briefcase" EP review

Bangladeafy’s Facebook page describes the bands interests as,”…to always be a student”, which, as well as being a personal mission statement for this writer, is a perfect summing up of the music on “The Briefcase” EP. With musical influences cited as including John EntwistleJaco PastoriousStewart Copeland and the Beastie Boys, the music here will be hard to categorise, and is all the more agreeable for it.
Bangladeafy - The Briefcase
Bangladeafy are essentially Jonny Germ on bass, vocals and keyboards andAtif Haq on drums who originate from New York and produce music of such joyous intensity that it is hard for the listener not to put down what they were doing and pay close attention. Imagine if you will a version of the band Lightning Bolt playing intricate passages that veer from free jazz to progressive rock via thrash metal and you can start to comprehend “The Briefcase”.
‘Fruit Flies’ features astonishingly complex lines and arrangements providing the framework for dazzlingly intense vocal. ‘Elixir’ and ‘Dumpster Fire’ continue on a similar theme, and without the vocals, showcases the density of the arrangements. Sound is manipulated and tortured on ‘Tubes’, before the listener is teased by what sounds like a familiar spaghetti western theme running through ‘Show Me the Gold’, an absolute tour de force of technical ability and passion.
The brevity of “The Briefcase” may be argued to be a disappointment for the listener who is now transfixed with the mischievousness of the music and the barrage of instrumentation on display. Reading this, the listener should not be put off “The Briefcase”, fearing it to be another collection of technically adept, but ultimately soulless, “mathcore” tunes. Exciting to listen to at home, but one must also wonder, how bracing to experience in the live context...
Bangladeafy – The Briefcase

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