ninehertz

Something of a super group with this one; members of Number One Son, Human League and Future eX-Wife taking a break from the day jobs and trying their hand at a bit of old school rock. As you'd expect from musicians with kind of this experience, this isn't exactly a garage band stumbling through their first chords. The playing is slick from start to finish and the song writing is of a high standard. It would be difficult to read anything about Dirty Blood without a reference to the vocals. Yeah, they have a female singer, but this isn't some gimmick to gain cheap magazine column inches. Whereas Future eX-Wife do songs with similar reference points, theirs is a much sleazier sound; all cheap whiskey and alleyway encounters. Here, the vocals are sexy as fuck and it changes the sound drastically.

Musically, this isn't breaking much new ground, but the overall quality would put a lot of full-time bands to shame. There are the usual stoner references that have been covered in many reviews, but thankfully the band steer clear of the clichés that can sometimes make listening to stoner something of a chore. Although there is a cowbell in there. The songs switch easily between driving, almost bouncy rhythms and big, spacious chords and the band never make do with one idea for each track. Picking a standout song from the four on offer is tough, but 'Shake The Nest,' is a personal favourite thanks to the use of some spacey phased guitars and a killer vocal melody in the chorus with a simple, effective riff to match.

At just over 15 minutes long, it's over pretty quickly but serves it's purpose brilliantly, which is that it makes you want to check out more of their stuff or see them live. Touring has proved to be a slight problem due to the band members busy schedules, but judging from this taster and a recent show (sadly I was stuck at the bar for most of their short set, but it sounded great from there), they'll be well worth the effort of catching. Roll on the tour and first release proper as their live performance showed a variety this collection is a little light on.

[plug] Of course if you live near Sheffield and fancy watching them, then it's not a problem as they're playing the first ever ninehertz show on October 1st.... [/plug]