Release Date: Oct 9, 2012
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock
Record label: Rock Action
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The indie class of 2012 has more than its fair share of moustached, knob-twiddling, vintage synthesiser enthusiasts. People who pay more homage to New Order and Suicide than Television and the MC5, the influences of choice for guitar bands since the Strokes-inspired Great Guitar Revival of the early Noughties. Errors, the arty Glaswegian three-piece signed to Mogwai's Rock Action label, are the ideal example of this, armed with thoughtful, dreamy and occasionally energetic electro soundscapes.
A few things one needs to get out of the way when approaching the new mini-album from Glasgow-based Errors. Yes, even though this is an eight-song-long release that runs about 32 minutes, which is about what a great deal of indie rock albums these days tend to run length-wise, this is considered to be a “mini-album”—not quite an extended play in brevity, but not quite a full-length album. It exists somewhere in the middle, in the same way that Sugar’s Beaster was a six song, half-hour long statement in miniature.
A welcome eight-tracker from the always impressive Glasgow trio. Mike Diver 2012 While not quite a follow-up proper to Errors' third album Have Some Faith in Magic, released in March 2012, New Relics packs enough into its eight tracks to warrant investigation from both established followers and newcomers. This set finds the Glasgow electro-does-indie-does-electro trio in a fairly introspective mood.
The video which accompanies ‘Engine Homes’, the opening song of ‘New Relics’ - the EP comes out on, along with the usual formats, VHS, with a video for each song - begins with the image of a test card. Behind it, a keyboard chord that sounds like something from ‘Space:1999’ builds, and distorts, and so does the image, and everything goes a bit… weird. Before too long we’re into geometric shapes spinning towards us through the darkness amidst ambient drones and chants; visuals and audio like something from an old episode of ‘Tomorrow’s World’ (which is nearly as much of a contradiction in terms as this EP’s name) on ‘Grangehaven’; cheesily-edited footage from a rave backed by bubbling keys and squelching, clicking drum machines, electronic percussion breakdowns soundtracking the Milky Way; and the distant vocals of ‘White Infinity’ alternately serenading a glamorous woman and an erupting volcano.