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Narco - Control Of The Stereo
Narco are a five piece filth mongering, aural-assault of a band that have actually been around for a while, despite this being the bands debut long player. They cut their musical cloth providing the music for multi million selling computer & console games like Driver and The Getaway, the music on this album is a logical leap from those games, it’s a ram raiding, blast of tearaway punk pop that has a definite dangerous edge to it that’s never far from the surface.
The album opens with the insistent drum and guitar racket of Hey You, it’s all singing all sneering vocals set the platform for the remainder of Control Of The Stereo. Cave the lead singer is no Jamie Callum (thank god) and sounds proud and confident of that fact. The single Worth It follows, with its questioning chorus asking “is it worth it, getting drunk every night and getting into a fight�. The air of violence is never far away in both the lyrics and the urgency that the instruments are played with throughout.
I have to say the album is very much a grower, tracks like Une Kilo De Stilo with it’s chugging “I do it my way, you do it yours� chorus and the wonderfully titled Young Man vs The 747 are songs that on first or second listen can easily pass you by. Perseverance though pays dividends and on further listening the different layers start to seep out of the mix. They might not be breaking new ground musically is probably one of the criticisms that would be levelled at them, but when has it not been fun listening to a Stooges, Stranglers and Clash style mix of raw aggression?
Evil Brother was my first introduction to the band some months ago. The debut single is still one of the stand-out tracks in the bands repertoire, it’s a very immediate track, features a superb bass line from Marc Vox and Inspiral Carpets style keyboard / organ backing from J.G. The 2nd Evolution kick starts the second half of the album, as they leave behind the garage punk format for a more psychedelic and anthemic sound. This is followed up by the stuttering, stop-start rhythm of Getting It, a far more 60’s rhythm and blues feel show that the band are prepared to mix it up a bit in amongst the trash-guitar tracks that were more prominent on the first half of the record.
- Narco
- Control Of The Stereo (2005)
- Category: Album
- Label: Surface 2 Air
- Reviewed by: Kev
- Published on: 02 Jul 2005
- Comments: 1
- Beat Surrender Rating:
Weblinks
Add to favouritesThe Heat Ray and Soldiers Don’t Sleep pass me by without leaving a lasting impression; however Pick It Up does just that, its jerky energetic pop gives the album real vitality that the closing stages would have lacked without it. Teen Suicide Explosion is a track that leaves you hanging on throughout as it builds and falls in all the right places, it’s almost epic by Narco’s standard weighing in at a substantial six minutes, although in truth three minutes of that are amp feedback….yep rock and rollers to the last these boys.
So generally a pretty promising debut, plenty of energy and angst from Narco, lots of bluster within the guitars and drumming, vocals that boil with rage throughout and pleasingly one or two surprising tracks from the band that hint they could potentially go off in a different direction if they want to. The ability to change styles you sense will become increasingly important for them; the garage-rock field is currently littered with lots of rising stars who like Narco have a bit of fire in their belly, Dogs, The Rakes, The Dead 60’s to name just three, staying one step ahead of the competition is the next challenge for these lads.
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Comment Permalink | Kev said:
Keep your eyes peeled for an exclusive interview in issue 5 if you’re a Narco fan or want to find out a bit more about the band.
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