The Beat Maras allegedly formed at a Cornwall art college, which might explain some of the overblown pretension of the Huaraz EP.
The Beat Maras also claim they wish to appeal to “down-to-earth brickies and up-in-the-air hippies”, and perhaps they do. But it sounds to me like they’re pitching straight for the pointy shoes and cardigans of the Camden set; the Huaraz EP isn’t so much working class as it is slumming.
It starts with a bang, as The Beat Maras launch into the weird rock’n'roll found-sound cacophony of “Getaway Car”, whose deliberate sloppiness and lumpen velocity has the probably unintended effect of making it the most sincere song on the Huaraz EP.
It’s all downhill from here, though; “The Huaraz Song” is a sparse jangle-indie piece that sounds like a smacked-out Kinks armchair-travelling around the world in search of purpose and a good fix.
“Groping Like The Cave Man” opens with psychedelic orchestral drones, then we get some acoustic guitar and voice thrown in; there’s a sinister air to the music that balances against the quasi-surrealism of the lyrics about drugs, mortality and gorillas. The Beat Maras obviously own a few Beatles albums. Like, wow, man.
Finally, “The Beauty And The Horror” reeks of obvious Pete Doherty-esque GCSE poetics and hollow bombast, as if The Beat Maras have perfected some mystical ability to sound deep while saying very little indeed.
The whole of the Huaraz EP seems strangely smug, a kind of studied cool and knowing hipster thing. Looking at the indie scene currently, I expect The Beat Maras will win a lot of people over, but from where I’m sitting they sound like just another bunch charity-shop poseurs.
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Posted in Music reviews |
Tags: Huaraz EP, indie, psychedelic, The Beat Maras
March 15th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
That’s a great review. Highly amusing, pretension is the name of the game my man! I don’t go to charity shops anymore, I wear Hacket most of the time and go shooting and shit!