We first saw these guys supporting Pendulum in Liverpool, where they managed to get the crowd appropriately ‘warmed’ with some very eclectic beats and bleeps. Our interest was piqued there, and they have kindly sent us their album to pick apart and bitch about.
Their sound is definitely electronic, but not so much ‘Dance’ music per se. It’s definitely music you can dance to, but a world away from Cascada and other such irrelevant trash. It’s more experimental and fresh, and therefore infinitely more exciting than the stuff that inhabits most clubs. There is a harsh backbone to the whole thing that sets them apart, especially in a live setting, and that mostly transfers to the album.
I understand this is more of a compilation of their work to date, rather than a full debut album (which is due out sometime this year), and it sort of shows. There are tracks on here that are miles ahead of others in terms of quality and style, but the whole thing is nicely produced and well put together. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume the weaker stuff is maybe older, and the stronger offerings are more recent, and are stronger as a result of a progression in sound.
For example, opener ‘Aeon’ is good but a bit bland, with no real identity; it sounds like perfect advert music. A car could be sold to this track. There’s a sense you’ve heard it before, but it doesn’t overly outstay it’s welcome and introduces the band quite nicely, even if you won’t remember much of it. Especially after hearing second track ‘Golden Dawn’ which is excellent; and wouldn’t be out of place on any dance floor in any city. It’s a rave, pure and simple, and I would gladly flail about in a drunken stupor were it to come on in my local dive.
This is followed by ‘Nothing Can Go Wrong’, a solid, stomping tune enhanced with The Hives-esque stylised vocals layered on top that works perfectly, and is arguably the best song on offer here. It has the most personality and is generally the most memorable.
However, ‘Revolution’ and ‘Castle Of Heroes’ (the next two songs) lack the same level of quality. ‘Revolution’s reliance on a looped vocal drags it down, and tedium quickly sets in. It’s hard not to reach for the skip button. Even at just under 4 minutes, it seems too long and struggles to hold your interest. Where the vocals on ‘Nothing Can Go Wrong’ really added to the track, here they seem to hinder it.
‘Castle of Heroes’ would possibly benefit from some editing…at almost 8 minutes in length (the longest on the album), the repetition sets in and doesn’t leave. It’s not necessarily bad, but doesn’t match the earlier tracks in terms of quality or originality.
After this hard slog, the snappy ‘Machine’ is a breath of fresh air. Immediately fresh and varied enough to keep the listener interested, it couples purposefully-rough vocals with a masterclass in electronic music. It seems South Central are at their best when revelling in dirty base-lines, synths and manic drums. It’s tracks like this that prove they can pull their weight and would indicate they have a bright future ahead of them.
The album continues well enough, however the final 3 tracks contain nothing too remarkable. ‘Higher State’ is good, but also suffers from repetition, whereas ‘Dolls’ could have been a nice change of pace, but instead comes out more like a collection of leftover samples that don’t really gel. It sounds disjointed and any message conveyed in the lyrics is lost in the mess.
At times this album is brilliant, at times it isn’t, and at times it’s very strange indeed… South Central are certainly different, and the variety of sounds on offer keep it fresh. It’s just a pity that the songs themselves can get monotonous. I’d easily recommend seeing them live, and I’m looking forward to their debut album proper when it drops some time this year. I wouldn’t be surprised if it sounds more akin to ‘Nothing Can Go Wrong’ etc, than ‘Revolution’.
Rating: 
