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| Sunday, 24 August 2003 |
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The Rock
Company Compilation by Eddie Riff Not very long ago, Rock n Roll was the strictly the province of a few dedicated fans and musicians in Sri Lanka. The soundtrack to life lived on the fringes of a conservative and oh so middle class society. Then, with the proliferation of TV channels and radio stations beaming in Alternative and Metal, shops selling pirated Rock CDs and internet access, the floodgates were thrown wide open and the resulting deluge of Sri Lankan bands playing their own versions of rock have been astonishing to behold. Everywhere it seems, kids are picking up crude electric guitars and basses, hunkering down behind primitive drum kits, cranking up their amps to 10 and letting fly with a wall of distortion drenched noise that's capable of turning your brain to jelly! (Just like the American and British bands that inspired them in the first place.). And for those of us who have not been able to trawl through the nightclubs, bars and sporadic concerts featuring live performances by these bands, there's The Rock Company Compilation CD. A disc featuring 10 of the country's finest. And the message is loud and fuzz toned Rock has finally come of age in Sri Lanka! First off the starting grid is one of the pioneering bands that started the DIY work ethic, Independence Square. The track, Cummonova is a slice of noisy, melodic pop with a chorus that even those not into rock might well like. Next up is Paranoid Earthling (A band from Kandy) whose song Pull me under displays an assured rock dynamic at work that manages to out Nirvana, Nirvana. Quite frankly, Pull me under wouldn't be out of place on Nevermind. The track is brilliantly arranged and played with deceptive ease. Pity about the name though. Paranoid Earthling seems like a band that should be fronted by agents Scully and Molder from the X-Files. The 3rd song on the CD is by Stigmata. - hard core metal practitioners whose earned themselves a sizeable cult following and a reputation for professionalism. Their effort, Extinction shows exactly why. Ambitious in scope and stature, Extinction is a complex composition that floors you with its ugly beauty. The vocals yelp, bark and screech, guitars mesh and grind noisily and execute an accomplished solo passage, before re combining with the vocals, to change gears and rush headlong stopping inches away from oblivion. Ezra, by way of contrast, rock out in a more sedate style. This Christian rock band aren't afraid of wearing their beliefs on their sleeves, and in their song Nazarene. Stone Brokes What you are is a slow burner that lurches and jerks with a chorus saturated in feed back and personal angst while the song Freedom by Voyage, offers some respite from all the amplification with its strummed acoustic guitars and vocal harmonies. Krebs Cycle, like Stigmata are now established arbiters of the independent rock scene and their song Divine you is enhanced by the use of judicious turn table technology, adding some neat sonic textures and a techno edge to their rock attack. A more basic approach prevails for My cause by The Fallen, which is built around a churning riff. Innocent break by Cold Fusion is one of the searing highlights of the compilation which ends with Sinner by the band Mute, another slice of god rock that may convert listeners to their music, if not their cause. A lot of credit must go to the sterling efforts of the Rock Company whose tireless promotion and support have directly and indirectly helped many of the bands in this compilation to plug in and apply pedal to metal. Overall, the sound quality of the compilation effectively captures the raw energy and excitement generated by the bands. Unfortunately, the graphics of the sleeve, leave a lot to be desired featuring a cheesy painting of a Viking like warrior, brandishing a guitar as a club. It would be interesting to see how these bands develop and evolve their music over the next few years. Will for instance, they eventually shed some of the gothic and highly cliched imagery and concepts that seem to be the stock in trade of most heavy metal and alternative rock bands everywhere on the planet and develop something unique to their own world view? Will they bring anything new to the table? Heres hoping they will. Meanwhile, go out and buy this CD. You wont be disappointed. |
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