Amplifier, 'Amplifier' (Music for Nations) Released 10/05/04

This Mancunian 3-piece’s debut recalls a time when guitar music was an immense spiritual beast. A time when rock shaped the inner-core of lonely bedsit poets the world over – not like the frivolous frolics of today’s garage rock stars. Upon first listening, echoes of early nineties grungesters Soundgarden and Pearl Jam resonate, placing the music in a familiar, if somewhat incongruous, position in today’s scene. Sel Balamir’s deep treacled vocals and the intense prog-metal riffage, are all just so…meaningful, dude.

Unfortunately, 2 tracks into the album all this virtuous depth begins to look a suspicious illusion. Indeed, Amplifier appears to be little more than a tedious exercise in seeing what a bunch of Music Technology anoraks, overly absorbed in their guitars, can get their distortion and wah-wah pedals to do. The musicianship is undoubtedly superb, but there is sadly little regard for the listener. It’s a self-indulgent and over produced piece of work; the tracks are typically overlong and, save a few exceptions (the simple but beautiful ‘Old Movies’, for example), stray into dreary monotony.