Welcome to Under-overground. A section designed to promote less heard-of music that should be heard. Reviews of bands’ concerts, cds, mp3s, and myspace pages. Yes there are dozens of zines out there saying “don’t send us mp3s we don’t have the time”. This is ridiculous in this day and age where mp3 is the new format, cd is now slowly becoming as obsolete as cassettes and we need to get with the times!
This week I’ll be reviewing the mp3s on a myspace profile of South Easts’s Exus, a pop/punk/rock/metal/reggae type fusion which they proudly refer to as Junkrock (as their profile suggests)
The first track “Mind Flags” kicks off with this pounding riffing. It’s furiously, teeth shatteringly heavy, and also combined with a somehow very suitable fitting boiler-room type hiss. Its angry metal slips into a kind of funky soul before out of nowhere being sucked in to the hook. “Leave it, Leave it to me” jumps in and it’s catchy as hell.
The next track “No more” hits into a similar territory, but this time it’s sort of leaning towards soul music, “We’re not gunna listen no more” bellows front-man Daz with real conviction about whatever it is he’s not going to listen to, and if it’s about criticism then he shouldn’t. This is a very polished, refined and mature effort that you couldn’t expect of a band twice their age (their ages spanning between 17 to 21)
Next up is ballad “The light.” It’s got this dub-reggae kind of thing without actually being reggae at all. It’s always dangerous territory for a band to slip into “the token soft one”; it sometimes comes across as insincere and a very generic kind of thing. Whilst this song can only be described as “the token ballad” of sorts, it’s still memorable, it’s catchier than a 90s boy band, and for me has radio-friendly all over it. There is a real market for songs like this, and it’s not wrong to suggest that Exus should pursue it.
The last track is ”Endless Romance”, a fast paced punk blast of a song. This is their love-song if you could call it that, but it’s not soft in the slightest sort of “I love you, but I’m still hard as nails” kind of thing, crashing drums, and loud guitars a great finale (although this being myspace I can assume they’re actually in no-particular order) to the overall sound that is Exus.
Exus are a talented, and catchy band, and they’re still in their infancy as musicians. If they just carry on exactly what they’re doing now it’s hard to imagine that they can’t come up with something truly great when they’re already writing songs of this standard. While there isn’t anything breath-takingly original there, it doesn’t matter. There’s a blend of different genres - you can never pin-point them to sounding like another band. They sound like Exus; they sound fantastic.
If you have an MP3 or CD you’d like me to listen to, email me at jack@donowdo.com, or by post to Jack Sprat, DoNowDo Limited, Riverside Business Centre, River Lawn Road, Tonbridge, Kent TN9 1EP