Album review by James M
You have to feel for
Errors. Any new band starting out will tell you that as much as they
want to pay their own way, having a few contacts wouldn’t go amiss.
Sure, now three albums in and playing hundreds of gigs worldwide they’ve
more than earned their respect the right way. However, certain
comparisons seem to regurgitate around just about anything they do.
Being the favourite child of Mogwai who are the founders of Rock
Action Records, Errors were always going to be living in the shadows
of their Glaswegian peers. Yet when stepping from the shade and into
the daylight, anybody who had taken time to actually listen to the
band would have realised this is far from the truth. The tempo of
most of the songs wouldn’t sound out of place on a post-rock
record, that’s true. The way the songs build up, before breaking
into a plethora of beauty is another trait familiar with that genre.
Call me unconventional, but as the opening track on their debut
album, 2008’s wonderful ‘It’s Not Something But It Is Like
Whatever’ suggests – this is dance music - something the
bandwagon jumpers seem to have forgotten.
After an abrasive
guitar and drum duel has commenced, we’re reminded of just that, as
not longer than a minute into opener ‘Tusk’ the band's keyboarding
duo have us searching for our dancing shoes. As the title suggests
‘Magna Encarta’ follows suit with all things electronica. The
added ingredient not just here, but on a big portion of this album is
the vocal element. Like dreampop and shoegaze before them, they seem
to incorporate vocals into the mix, leaving the listener without any
understanding of what they’re saying. Instead using it as more of a
tool, an added instrument into the fray, and they pull it off just as
well as all who have tried before them. ‘Blank Media’ is the best
example of this, a trippy journey in which a faint voice hazes in
and out consciousness, whilst the song steadily gets louder and
louder before a blissful climax. If people were still doubting the
band's credentials to get you moving then they really need to look no
further than ‘Pleasure Palaces’. Recently decided as the next
promo single, if put into the right hands the band could certainly
fill a few fields with pleasure at festivals this summer as their
sound reaches epic proportions.
As the dust settles
over the party season and as the album draws nearer to a close,
‘Cloud Chamber’ creeps in with its faint, melancholic touch
showing there is a quieter side to this record. ‘Barton Spring’
follows the theme, a slow, industrial sounding, yet beautiful
interlude before the lights are turned back on and we’re told to
get back on the dance floor one more time. Artists tend to leave the
last track on their work for something a bit special and we aren’t
going to be let down this time. If you were short on time and needed
2 words to sum up Errors then ‘Holus-Bolus’ would be a good
choice. The finale absorbs everything else from the album into five and
a half minutes of alluring artistry. The pristine drum beats, the
bewitching keys, the noisy middle sections, right through to the
attention they pay to finishing a song off.
Choosing a highlight on
an Errors album is almost as difficult as summing up the bands sound
itself. There’s so much going on that it certainly isn’t
something you can become a huge fan of in two or three listens. It’s
definitely something you can enjoy, yet even ten plays in you’re
always finding something new, something hidden into the mix. This may
be why despite their potential, and as contradicting as my high
opinions go, they haven’t found themselves attracting the attention
they deserve. That isn’t a bad thing of course, if anything they
are miles ahead of similar artists who have a guitar background but
are plotting their way into the hearts of electronic music
enthusiasts. It is an album that gets better with every listen and if
you give it enough time you won’t be disappointed. Hopefully this
time around they have done enough to stop any nonsensical
comparisons, but don’t hold your breathe.
Errors' website
Stream the album in full
Buy the album
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