Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The world revolves around both, one nourishes the heart, the other allegedly makes the Earth spin at a peculiar angle and warps the judgement of anybody who gets to close it. Whether it is Blood or Brass that floats your boat, to The Rainbreakers it is most defiantly Blood Not Brass that makes music flow with astounding pressure and the white heat of the raw and unadulterated flood through the unguarded eardrums.
There is something unrelenting about Blood Not Brass that makes the heart beat fast as if listening to the very best of Heavy Rock without going down the route of supposed self-importance, the avenue of the over-blown and righteous screaming banshee like approach to which some placed far too much importance in. Blood Not Brass powers its way through the four songs that are woven into its grooves and veins as if being driven by a dynamo, one 400 feet thick and its self capable of sucking the entire energy output from Sellafield quicker than Road Runner outpacing the end credits of a cartoon.
The four piece outfit are able to arguably produce such work because of the way they have humbly gone about making it. Yes it’s loud and attention grabbing, the guitar being played as if it’s made a Faustian pact, the soul being driven as it has no place it would rather be and the lyrics are ones to die for, however, take stock for a moment and the realisation that the band place great emphasis of fusing other genres into the wild and seemingly abandoned, that the tones are not what the listener first imagines them to be, then it hits you, not only is Blood Not Brass endearing, it is verging on the magnificent.
The four tracks, Ain’t Nothing Goin’ On, On My Knees, Blood Not Brass and All I Got tickle the underbelly of Rock and give it meaning, it squirms with delightful appeal and in the end the only decent thing to do, the only humane thing to do, is to go round your closest neighbours, invite them to come round and listen, for the stereo is going up loud and the street might start to rumble.
Blood Not Brass, it’s almost a war cry to those who place the sheer lunatic aspect of monotony happiness above their own health, an E.P. of distinction.
The Rainbreakers perform at the Live Rooms in Chester on June 13th.
Ian D. Hall