REVIEW: After a good 4 years away, Evil Nine return with They Live, their second album and follow up to their critically acclaimed debut You Can Be Special Too which won fuck loads of awards back in the day.
Simply put, They Live is fucking fantastic! It is emphatically not a Breaks album. Its a mish-mash of electronic beats, indie guitars, thrash metal sensabilities with a heavy dose of horror movies thrown in and is nothing except 100% classic Evil Nine!
VERDICT: These guys were never ones to stick to a particular genre and They Live proves that. Forget all this bullshit dance/indie crossover shit thats in the charts - this is how its done RIGHT!
Feed On You: Kicks off the zombie vibe with a wicked 80's horror sample that kicks into a driving synth/guitar lead and a heavy dose of cowbell action in the background!
The Wait:Strong second-single material with a good vocal from Autokratz and yet more of the gloriously grungy synth that covers this album!
All The Cash:Now we're talkin, cos this tune fucking rules! With an awesome rap by EL-P over the top, some truly monstrous droning guitary synths in the background and a surprisingly melodious chorus, this tune is FAT! Consider this dropped next time I'm playing...
They Live:First single off the album and its a wicked 80's horror movie-themed bastard. Not exactly peak time set stuff but the broken beat overlaid with a cool guitar riff and some nice vocoder work (about Zombies!) means that this is a definite winner! Its not on the album but the RogerSeventyTwo remix is a guaranteed floor filler...
Ngempa Guzon:Just a 1min crossover from They Live, this track continues with the 80s synths and a chilled out breakbeat - proper atmoshpheric yagetme?
How Do We Stop The Normals?:
Grungy, punchy and with another hands-in-air synthy breakdown. Not really dancefloor stuff but wicked nonetheless.
Dead Man Coming:Another collab, this time featuring Toastie Taylor, Dead Man Coming is pure zombie-filled badness! Yet another horror-style theme running under an acoustic breakbeat and some cool Beanie Man-esque vocals from Toastie - this is cool.
Set It Off:Another monster in the style of All The Cash! Droning guitars and a punchy "Bom Kash, Ba-Dom-Bom-Kash..." breakbeat transform this into another rock-filled dancefloor badboy! Headbanging necessary! :-)
Behemoth:Slow, booming and growly - this is a tune that does what it says on the tin! Not a club tune but fat anyway!
Born Again:Another bridging tune that lays on the synths quite heavily. Wicked vocoded vocal and some sweeping effects in this...
Twist The Knife:Now this is a tune that wouldnt sound out of place at Reading Festival. This is Evil Nine in full-on band mode here, with massive guitars, wicked drumming and a screaming vocal from Emily Breeze - this track is wicked! Kinda similar to some of the more rocky Atomic Hooligan stuff but definitely nice to see an electronic act expanding in this direction!
Luke Goss:The Evils drop back into electronic mode for this ode to the former Bross singer. Nice and fast, grungy and with yet more wicked vocoded vocals. Wicked tune, if a bit of a mission to mix into a Breaks set (think this prob sits at around 145?)...
Icicles:Back to the acoustic stuff for the album closer - Icicles sounds like a cross between the Kings of Leon (courtesy of vocalist Seraphim) and Atomic Hooligan. Driving guitars and synths sit under the vocals and the whole tune wraps up the album with a beautifully chilled soundscape.
