Song, by Toad

In terms of making yourselves absolutely fucking impossible to track down on the internet, calling a band ‘Women’ has got to be pretty damn near the top of the list. I eventually found these guys by following my last.fm profile and discovering Flemish Eye Records, to whom they are signed.

They’re a Candian band, from Calgary I believe, which always fills my little patriotic heart with a little extra joy, and have a self-titled (presumably to make it even harder to track down – try searching Amazon for “Women”) album out in the first week of July. I’ve been listening to my preview copy for a while now and, although it really didn’t grab me by the ‘nads immediately, it’s been growing and growing steadily and has slowly emerged from the background to make itself known as a really rather decent record.

I say emerged, because it is not obviously any more than a standard, slightly fuzzy indie guitar album. It was something of a low-tech recording process by all accounts, and I am a sucker for that, so the rough sound sort of suits me. Synths make occasional intrusions into what is a pretty textural sound, accompanying mechanical rhythms and industrial noise. The vocals are distracted and distant, and I find myself just slightly reminded of a dense, muffled version of early nineties indie.

Nevertheless, from this swamp of sounds there does emerge a fairly insistent album of deceptively good tunes. They sound a little like The Walkmen in some aspects, although without the furious noise which that group so often generate. I’ve heard, however, that they are somewhat fearsome live so I’d be keen to see them if the opportunity arose. I know it’s all a bit tentative, this review, but that’s kind of how I feel. I’m not flabberghasted by the brilliance, but there is plenty of promise in this album and I’m definitely going to be keeping an eye on these chaps in future.

Women – Black Rice
Women – Lawncare

MySpace | Buy from Flemish Eye Records