Sunday 14 December 2008

Beware Of Safety ~ Dogs

For all its faults sometimes Myspace is pretty bloody wonderful. I have been introduced to some wonderful music via its pages. Stephanie Casey, who plays under the moniker of Fall of Snow is one (I'll return to her at some point in the future) that blew me away with her beautifully fragile and sparse sound. My favourite though is a band who wrote to me asking me to have a listen to their stuff (presumably because I had listed such acts as Mogwai, God Is An Astronaut and Mono as favourites).

I was hooked from the start and that very evening sent away for their debut ep 'It Is Curtains'. I've said before that I don't really like the phrase 'Post Rock' it is meaningless to me and doesn't express what the music is about, but if there has to be such a genré then Beware of Safety are right at the top of the tree along with Mono for me. Their music is exhilarating, vibrant, loud and passionate and their second release 'Dogs' ticks all the boxes and although it was only released this month is my favourite album of the year.

The album kicks off with 'Nu Metal' which floats along with layered guitars and fabulous drumming and then explodes, in fine 'Post Rock' tradition, into a whirling dervish finish. It is quite breathtaking and is one of the best 10 minutes you could hope to spend.

'The Supposed Common' kicks off with a lovely pizzicato refrain. Too many bands in the genré use strings these days in a lazy way and in is refreshing to see them used in a different way. Here is an early version of the track from Youtube.




There is plenty of good old fashioned wig outs on the album which is great but Beware Of Safety are far more than that. They are thoughtful and melodic and carry you away with the beauty of their music.

Although they haven't toured the UK yet I know the band are keen to do so and I for one will be first in the queue for tickets.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hey, this is the bass player from Beware of Safety. Thanks for the support on your blog! You're right, we'd love to make it to the UK sometime soon, so we'll have to see how the next year pans out.

I've finished up some new solo recordings and they're available for free, so if you'd like to check them out, you can find them at tremoilte.bandcamp.com and tadpiecka.bandcamp.com. Electronic and acoustic respectively. If anything interests you, feel free to post an entry.

If not, thanks anyway!

~ Tad