Child
Child
Self-released
19
February 2014
The
songs:
1.
Trees 8:14
2.
Stone By Stone 6:16
3.
All Dried Up 5:14
4.
Mean Square 8:06
5.
Blue Overtone Storm/Yellow Planetary Sun 10:04
The
band:
Mathias
Northway - guitars & vocals
Michael
Lowe - drums & percussion
Jayden
Endsor - bass guitar
Album Review
An
entirely new acquaintance to me, Melbourne-trio Child had me right
away with their self-titled 5-track debut. Their slow, seedy and
dirty stoner blues is the perfect remedy for a bad day as it oozes
misery and despair like any proper blues album should. And that is
the cure when you feel you're in the gutter. Having only started out
in 2012 the vibes this trio conjurs goes 40-50 years back into the
heartland of the American swampy delta blues, hell they could have
been with Robert Johnson when he struck a deal with the devil at the
crossroad. It is that damned good, you hear!
'Trees'
starts off sounding almost like early Black Sabbath it quickly
changes when Mathias Northway fires off a solo. From there on it's
heavy stoned blues of the highest order. Feeding on emotions and
feelings Child keep things slow and psychedelic in order to really
bring their creation to the listener in the best possible way. Going
into long spaced out solos full of reverb and fuzz I close my eyes
and drift away and I can feel my tension and stress wash away in no
time. The ghost of the amazing Stevie Ray Vaughan is so present in
'Stone By Stone'.
Mathias makes the guitar talk and cry just Stevie did, listen to the
amazing solos and you know what I am talking about. And Jayden and
Michael on bass guitar and drums respectively has the tightness of
Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton of Double Trouble. A fantastic slow
brooding song that keeps growing and growing.
On
'All Dried Up'
the band is assisted on organ by Horce and man this is a desperate,
haunted yet very beautiful song. Mathias is wearing his emotions on
his sleeve as he belts out his frustration and the guitar is wailing
and howling with despair. All this is even further enhanced by the
baying of the organ which sounds eerie and doomsday-like. Starting
out in almost sludge-style 'Mean
Square' before switching to
power blues while picking up the pace slightly. Again Mathias
delivers some fantastic solos throughout and mark my words this guy
will be world-famous! Last out is 'Blue
Overtone Storm/Yellow Planetary Sun'
and it's a powerful ending. The band keeps it slow in the verses and
annihilates in the choruses. They're not going at it much faster
instead they simply add heaviness to the choruses which builds up the
song to a stellar end-section.
I've
been mentioning frontman Mathias Northway and his guitar playing a
lot which isn't strange if you listen to this album. However, without
the backing from bass player Jayden Endsor and drummer Michael Lowe
no one would get to hear this. In order to pull this off you need
talented and confident musicians and Child's rhythm section is top
notch, to say the least. And they allow Mr.Northway so much freedom
and space that the whole recording oozes of class, maturity and
unrestrained joy despite the somewhat dark lyrical content.
Don't
know how many times I've said it before but surprises like Child's
self-titled debut is something I want more of. It brings life to
music and shakes my world around, making it fresh again. And it's so
rewarding to hear bands that can actually make new music out of old
styles in an era when most bands and artists goes for the safe route,
i.e. fodder stuff or muzak. Great job guys and I can't wait to hear
more from you!
Håkan
Nyman
Thanks to Child for sending us a promo to review. Check the band from links below:
