The Beat Surrender

Unfortunately due to the time constraints of trying to balance a hectic social life, with a full time job and the running of this here website, I don’t always get to listen to absolutely everything I get sent, some of it is passed straight onto some of our wonderful contributors who give up their time for the sheer love of music…well a bit of free music in most cases..but thats not the point.

One such release slipped through the net last February, it was the debut EP from The Union Trade on Tricycle Records and at the time I passed it onto Smartie who very kindly reviewed it. While not being blown away with it (as it wasn’t her thing) she did have a lot of positives to say about it.

Accompanying their debut album when it arrived was a letter from Tricycle Records (I do like the personal touch), which thanked us for the previous coverage and asked if we’d give Everyday Including a listen for a potential review…I took them up on their offer and was delighted that I did.

I can see why The Union Trade wouldn’t be to everyones taste, they don’t make three minute pop anthems and they certainly don’t do punk pop tracks in their skinny jeans and converse boots, it’s a far more mature post-rock sound that these guys give us instead. The end result is an album that you can immerse yourself in and become lost in, sit daydreaming while it’s playing or have it in the back ground while you concetrate on something, it has that there, but yet inobtrusive feel to it.

There are elements of shoe-gazing to go with the post-rock, but even this is done in as sonic, maverick style that reminds you of why you loved My Bloody Valentine, early Ride and Spacemen 3, it’s building up a soundscape and walls of noise on tracks like Strings Break, Talk (with some lovely soaring guitar by the way) and the brilliant Violent And Beautiful.

On other tracks they build things up even slower, keeping the tension in the track for as long as possible, the epic feel to the opener Self Possession is the first example of it, but it’s most effective on Upstream which has a hushed quality to it. The Nights Are Getting Longer is the only frustrating track for me, which opens with piano and drums and just as you are about to start getting into it, it finishes.

As i’ve said earlier, it won’t be for everyone and a lot of people will feel no doubt that it’s not immediate enough, but if you are a fan of any of the reference points i’ve used in this review then I think you’ll find an album from The Union Trade that you quickly grow to love.

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