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Holes In The Wall Review
There's a lot to admire about the slightly precocious Brighton brothers, Alex and Tom White. Collectively, they are The Electric Soft Parade, one of the groups spearheading the British guitar-band revival.
The boys have written, co-produced and shared a staggering amount of instrumental responsibilities on their debut album. Tom, for instance, despite still being three months shy of his 18th birthday, is credited in the sleeve notes as a drummer, vocalist, guitarist, bassist, violinist, pianist and drum machine and synthesizer player. Crikey. It makes you wonder how they find the time to listen to all the records they do.
As befits the multi-talented siblings, ESP's sound is wonderfully eclectic. And there are a fair few brilliant moments on 'HITW' - take full-on opener, 'Start Again', reminiscent of Travis' similarly zealous and forthright 'All I Wanna Do Is Rock', for example. In fact, take the gorgeous Teenage Fanclub-esque chorus of 'Silent To The Dark' for another. Indeed, there's even the early Elastica-style scuzziness of 'Empty In The End' - and that's not to mention the mean, moody magnificence of 'Why Do You Try So Hard To Hate Me'…
The influences as a result, then, are many and varied. Therefore, 'Holes In The Wall' is as diverse as you could possibly want - but seems to lack a clear focus. A bit of streamlining on some of the longer tracks, notably the aforementioned 9-minute opus, 'Silent To The Dark', would have helped matters in this department slightly. Although these are mere reservations, it's almost as if there are just too many ideas competing for space.
Nevertheless, the potential is blatant - and the talent glaringly obvious. Can't wait for the follow-up therefore, for that shall most definitely be something rather special...
***
Written By Matt Tomiak
Source: Rock Feedback
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