ALBUM REVIEWS

Shortwave Fade DELETIA SLICE THE PIE 9.3.09 @www.vanguard-online.co.uk A big and widescreen sound, all rising melodies and intensifying sound, Shortwave Fade have pulled out all the stops in what sounds like an album tailored for success. Like a certain genre of indie (My Vitriol, JJ72, etc), Shortwave Fade have created a portentous sound while making it accessible. It’s the U2 effect – where something in the sound signifies importance but hooks and tunes are not sidelined. A canny trick if you can do it. Lyrically, it doesn’t carry the same weight but mostly it is snatches that pop into my ears, which are tied into listening to the rise and fall. At times the vocals are very good indeed, a high-pitched stream of fraught emotion, at others much more prosaic. Drums are important here, leading up into ever heightened sections of the song or ticking along, tightening the structure under waves of guitar sustain. Shortwave Fade will have a pretty wide appeal, ticking the boxes for a lot of people. That makes them ideal for the Slice The Pie label, where releases are funded by internet subscribers buying small shares in the band in the hope of making a profit on the sales of discs or in encouraging the careers of small bands. And I agree with the investors – Shortwave Fade are a fair bet. Given the vagaries of the music biz a band can rise or fail on the impact of a butterfly’s wings in Southport but the ingredients here could be baked into a stadium-sized pie once the chefs here have a year or three more writing experience under their belts. Ross McGibbon www.myspace.com/shortwavefade Email Links & Comments to the editor Check the latest album releases