Photo by: Richard Halfpenny
If you like your music a tad darker and heavier than your normal sunshine and rainbows happy-go-lucky indie then look no further than This Et Al, who sound like ¡Forward Russia! replacing the disco electronics with roaring bass lines, or yourcodenameis:milo with less pop and more edge. It’s not all loud, loud, loud though as is shown throughout this sublime EP. Lead track ‘Figure Eight’ occasionally breaks from its almost brutal nature into short bursts of quiet before kicking back into the heavy stuff. There’s even a false ending too!
‘Medicine Hammer’ shows a gentler, more melody-driven side to the Leeds group, with the key line of “the hammer cracks harder than ever before” sounded more and more epic as the track goes on. ‘Ice Age’ is the most accessible track on the EP, with a perfect balance between heavy and soaring beauty. Featuring vocals from all four members of the band, it builds gorgeously until it descends into a tear-inducingly beautiful piano outro, which in turn leads perfectly into the last track of the record, ‘(The Tale Of) Frosty Jackson’. This hauntingly brilliant instrumental is captivating throughout, and shows off This Et Al’s truly outstanding musicianship well. At just over five minutes, it could quite easily have become overindulgent but that is something TEA could not be accused of on this EP. Dark, epic and well worth a listen.
Standout track: Medicine Hammer
Rhian Daly
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