Some bands are, from their very inception, crying out for media coverage. Not necessarily through choice, but rather because their particular style, image and the place they call home are the perfect snapshot of what the new music press are looking for. Liverpool quartet Ninetails don't appear to possess any of the attributes that would cause this to happen (not knocking the city by the way, its musical heritage speaks for itself); their sound doesn't belong to any currently emerging scene and it's unlikely to be the catalyst for one, and the music they make, although it clearly has its own style, doesn't have any particular wow factor or Zeitgeist defining properties. Yet Vice, Clash, NME, This Is Fake DIY and others have all pinpointed them as ones to watch. At first it's tricky to spot exactly why.
'Maybe We' is pleasant enough ambient number that's devoid of any particular structure or direction yet hints at possibilities (especially in the second half) without ever quite realising them. 'Bodyclock' does the reverse, beginning as a choppy electro track, by the middle it's descended into a minimal hum and appears to fade away before a final minute of abstract electronic murmuring. Maybe it's just us getting old. When they launch into the Vampire Weekend if they weren't nerds alt-pop of 'Rawdon Fever' we finally find the desired complete tune. It's a bouncy and eclectic number that goes some way to justifying the faith others have already expressed. Then they follow it with an entirely uneventful eight-minute soundscape that seems to serve little purpose. Redemption comes in the sprightly indie/pop closer 'Mama Aniseed' in which manage to make a conventional song that's not a million miles away from Everything Everything. So Ninetails are a promising band after all, but they could do with upping the tunes to ambiance level, but maybe it is just us getting old...
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