Louder Than The Music

Only a few weeks ago we had the winter blizzard of 2010, the worst I had seen in my lifetime. I was sent home from work on a few days, never left the house at night to visit family as the car wouldn't have got out of the street, so I felt at times that I was stuck in my own house. One morning during this winter of all winters a little grey card popped through my letterbox, Royal Mail could not deliver you letter due to lack of postage funds. The amount was for a mere 8pence yet the wonderful postal service decided to add a £1 pound handling fee. So off I trekked down the icy pavements to the post office, nearly ending up on my bottom a few times to pay my £1.08 for whatever someone had tried to send to me.

When I arrived I was pleasantly surprised to find out I had just received the latest EP from The Austin Francis Connection. If looks were everything this EP caught my attention at first glance. The EP named Drop The Beat came in a white cardboard sleeve like an old white label vinyl. But what was also great was the CD looked like a real vinyl and being a vinyl junky this really pushed the right buttons for me, so on looks 5 out of 5 guys.

Drop The Beat is the first track from the guys and is an interesting start, in a good way. I'm not sure I'm going to explain what the band sound like fairly without you listening. Here goes: Clever lyrics and rapping vocals like The Streets, acoustic guitars and style like Tom & Olly, with the rhythmic beats of Spoken Grove. I hope you're not too confused?

Marmite isn't all about hating Marmite, well I don't think it is. But again another clever lyrical track, all 4 tracks have lyrics that will make you think, make you smile, make you laugh and be impressed at the speed and rhyming creativity of The Austin Francis Connection. Alan is about an invisible mate, who seems like the perfect best friend, very funny and what I would count as one of the better songs on the EP, if only this was more than a demo.

The final track Elementally Speaking is the most complete, musically, of all tracks, and what I said about the track Alan has all changed, this final track is the best track, and when it finished I put straight back on to listen again.

The future is bright for this band. At times the EP does feel like a demo and very raw, but it does add to the greatness. To make a larger impact mainstream they will have to keep moving forward, but this EP is a brilliant place to start the fan base from. Friends, take a listen to this band and find out for yourself if this is a band for you.

Review by Jono Davies

LTTM Rating 3 out of 5 Stars
Standout Tracks
Alan
Elementally Speaking