Album review: SONIFICADE – Despite All The Noise

SONIFICADE - Despite All The Noise

Circular Records [Release date 20.05.16]

A four piece alternative indie rock band from the Midlands, who won an international unsigned band completion, Sonificade have signed to Scottish label Circular Records for the release their debut album.

Recorded at Kasabian’s studio in Leicestershire, and produced by up and coming Scottish producer Gary Boyle, it immediately makes a positive impression with a running time of just under an hour something of a rarity in these increasingly vinyl length album days. Musically, though, they’re a hard bunch to pin down.

The album has a refreshingly open soundscape with pronounced bass lines, with vocalist James Best sounding like a cross between Jim Kerr and John Lydon. Martin Byne’s guitars mimic The Edge at times, and the rhythm section of Paul Richardson and Rob Gill power along in good old Geezer Butler/Bill Ward fashion.

And while early U2 and Simple Minds bear some marginal comparisons, the band are equally unashamed to borrow from the likes of The Stones. It’s a refreshing approach which harks back to the days before digitisation began to detract from performance. Suitably loose, raw and unpolished it’s very much, I imagine, as they would be live.

Power, passion and belief, it’s all there. And easy to see their unpretentiousness appealing to the next generation. Ones to watch. ***

Review by Pete Whalley

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