The Beat Surrender

The vocals on No Danger’s opening track of ‘What I Want’ immediately remind me of a harsh sounding David Gray, or very early REM crossed with The Waterboys. Strange. And I could tell right away that this band is American. Inouk do hail from across the pond, and their unusual name, according to the press release, is either “a tribute to French actress Anouk Aimee, the name of one of their childhood invisible friends, of the name of a dead grandma, depending on which (band member) you ask”.

The bands influences and inspirations range from National Geographic to Randy Newman and Brian Eno. Their sound, to me, is very much lead guitar-driven and I can’t really segment their music into any kind of genre, but I can hear a mixture, including what I class as American rock, and even a bit of country.

From a rock inspired opening track, the title track of this debut, No Danger, slows right down and is quite haunting, as is Elected the latter of which would be my favourite from the album if I had to choose one. Father’s House and Search For The Bees continue the slow theme, and upon hearing these two, I would even go so far as to say there’s a bit of trance on this album. After yet another slow and, to be honest, nondesript, track With The Birds, I was pleased to hear a bit of acoustic guitar on Somewhere In France.

The beat picks up with Island and I detect a bit of Indie bass, just a smidgeon mind. The acoustic guitar makes a welcome return in Cherry Orchard and the tempo is back to slow and almost ballad-like for the penultimate track of Nudie Suit picking up beat and pace again for the final track, Victory.

The band have been musically inclined for quite some time, the main vocalists, brothers Alexander and Damon MacMahon, learning piano (Alexander) and penning lyrics since their early teens (both).

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