Mar

Lines in Sand / Cocean

Cocean: Thick as thieves
Lines in Sand: Moving away to start again

Inhaler Split

I love vinyl records – I love the feeling of having a tangible, proper ‘record’ in your hand. It’s a romantic ideology that vinyl is the best format to release music to the masses, but the truth is that vinyl can be expensive and to be honest, even the vinyl freaks I know are buying CDs as their laziness of unwrapping a record sets in. People just sling CDs on a player – if you did this with vinyl, certainly in my house, you’d be doing three laps of the shrubbery in your pants.

I love the feeling of having a tangible, proper ‘record’ in your hand.

Anyway… the Cocean track on this split starts with the familiar crackle and fuzz of a diamond tipped stylus hitting wax and it is a beautiful noise. Why is this noise on a CD? I don’t know, but it works and sets the scene for Inhaler’s latest DIY release perfectly.

This Cocean song starts with a fragile guitar that is so restrained that it stops you dead, worried that you might break the tension that is clearly building (if I say it reminds me of Foo Fighters ‘The Pretender’ really quickly, nobody will notice, will they?) and this tension lasts throughout the song. The depth and space in the production reminds me of Explosions In The Sky or maybe Codiene; the song could be twice it’s 3 minutes30 seconds and still be as demanding of my attention. I’m almost a little disappointed when the fuzz pedals are kicked, as I was enjoying romanticising over the tinkle-tinkle guitar SO much…

A great start to the split and, having heard track two, not the obvious opening track and all the better for it.

Lines in Sand’s offering on this CD lashes out from the first chord and follows Thick as Thieves perfectly… Listening to this, I can almost feel the pipe condensation dripping on my head at Leeds’ The Royal park Cellars such is the reminicent sound. It was around 1999 I first saw This Aint Vegas (masters of this genre of english emotional punk) and the sound of this song takes me right back to those days so this could be a little rose tinted maybe, but this is another song that could just go on-and-on for me. The production by Steve Ellis (Orion Studios) on this track is damn near perfect, blending the harsh abrasive guitar stabs with the harmonics of the post-emo (yuk!) balladesque chorus giving this call-to-arms a real edge when put next to many DIY offerings. I’m tempted by so many close band-a-like references but I’m going to resist – this song stands alone as a great song in its own right.

…these songs could be Radio One playlisted and be enjoyed by millions of spotty yoofs…

The DIY scene regularly comes under scrutiny for being dismissive of the mainstream but I don’t feel that is the case here, these songs aren’t introvert and could be Radio One playlisted and be enjoyed by millions of spotty yoofs in no time – all Inhaler needs is a disposable income of thousands, a plugger (or 5), major label backing… oh wait – this isn’t right.

Please buy the single and support the true indie labels.

Inhaler Records
Lines in Sand
Cocean

For your viewing pleasure…