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album reviews

ILikeTrains

Progress Reform 8 ( 2006 )
Terra Nova / No Military Parade / A Rook House For Bobby / Citizen / Accident / Stainless Steel / Beeching Report /

No hype, no fanfare. Certainly unfashionable, I can’t imagine the kids looking good on the dancefloor to iliketrains. The thing is though, this band show genuine promise in the old fashioned sense of the word. It’s such a refreshing change from trendier modern bands trying to be the new Libertines or the new Happy Mondays or whatever. Who iliketrains remind me of is harder to put into words. I’ll throw a few names up in the air. Idaho, The God Machine, The Chameleons, Arab Strap. Shoegazing in general, with the sky-scraping, soaring guitar sound. A hefty weight of doom lies over proceedings, iLikeTrains give new meaning to the word ‘epic’. If The Editors or Interpol are supposedly dark and gloomy, iLikeTrains make them seem like Black Eyed Peas in comparison. Sunny soul that I am, I’m quite taken by the sound of iLikeTrains. Let’s take the opening number, ‘Terra Nova’. Vocals both low and loud with suitably doomy resonance around ponderous bass and drums. The guitar picks out a lonesome sounding melody. The rhythm section continue doggedly with their task, yet the guitars suddenly float, soar and bite. The sound envelopes you, probes and prods both your brain and your stomach. It’s a good combination, the scary and exhilarating guitars, the fascinating lyrical matter. It’s great once the noise of guitars gets really going, it sounds so good when you turn up that volume dial.

‘Progress Reform’ is technically a mini-album, by the way. Seven songs, a twenty eight minute or so LP that begs many questions going forward when they get round to releasing a full album. ‘Progress Reform’ is a complete work that seems to have been built around a couple of themes and it hangs together very well. For the length of the album, it works. Forty or fifty minutes of stomach churning ( in a good way?!? ) melodic noise may not be as palatable, but we shall see. The final track for example quietens the noise, but with the chanting and the weird lyrics scares the willies out of me. It’s certainly no kind of light relief! There’s a feeling a good half of the albums tracks are far more atmosphere than content, although it’s an impressive atmosphere, usually. ‘Citizen’ for example finishes just as it gets going, a couple of minutes of the iliketrains guitar sound, almost like a showcase of ideas not yet entirely honed as well as we hope the band can do in years hence. They’ll either disappear into obscurity back from whence they came, or end up producing a half prentious, seventy minute long epic that will impress as many people as it confuses. They seem that kind of a band. I think that’s why I like them.

Share Your Views?

Readers Comments John, County Kildare john.j.doyle@nuim.ie From what I've heard, (I don't own the actual album as of yet) this band are something really special, and have a real bright future ahead of them. Checked out some of their material on-line. Damn good.

this page last updated 14/10/08