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Review: 'SENSORITES'
'JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN'
- Label: 'HOLLOWHOLE'
- Genre: 'Indie' - Release Date: '15th November 2010'
Our Rating:
You don’t need me to tell you we’re living in precarious times, yet young bands out there keen to address this situation in any tangible way seem to be thin on the round.
Hailing from Liverpool, SENSORITES don’t profess to have any answers, but at least with their second single ‘Just Because You Can’ they can admit things are very wrong and have been moved enough to write a suitably bittersweet, yet positivity-stuffed anthem (the kind of thing Merseyside legend Pete Wylie might describe as “optimisery”) about it. It’s the sort of affair that brings a lump to the throat rather than inducing gales of laughter when they sing potentially naive lines like “if we just escape the fate we make, maybe we’ll be free.”
It’s difficult to mention ‘Liverpool’ and ‘harmonies’ without people immediately jumping to odious Beatle-related conclusions, but it’s not an overbearing issue with Sensorites. Brothers Nathan and Gareth Kidman (who also handle guitar, bass and keyboards while Robbie Maddox mans the traps) certainly have that deceptively easy sense of Mersey pop melody, but there’s a noticeable grit and determination here to balance out the Badfinger-style harmonies. Indeed, when Nathan sings on his own he sounds more reminiscent of a young Mick Head than anyone else.
So ‘Just Because You Can’ is a success, though it’s diluted somewhat by the excessive raft of remixes. The single itself winds down after a sensible 3 minutes 15, but we then get a further 18 minutes courtesy of five disparate remixes. ‘Muz’s Get Down Remix’ melds strings and piano to subtle beats and actually adds something of value. The gauche breakbeats of the ‘Rolaz Remix’ don’t. Neither do the instrumental mix, the ‘Naked’ mix or the (Gawdelpus) ‘A Capella’ mix. A word to the wise lads: next time you’ve got your audience onside, make sure to leave while they want more. Get over that hurdle and we could really be in business.
Author : Tim Peacock
