By: Rich Buley
Maff | website | facebook | bandcamp |
Released on July 6, 2015 via Independent
Santiago, Chile may not necessarily be the first location we all think of when it comes to quality post-punk with fierce, effects-riddled guitars, but that is exactly where we might find Maff, a four piece who have been in existence since 2012, but only at the beginning of last month did they release their eponymous and debut album.
Maff have a sound that you would place somewhere between the rasping, spiky grunge of Pixies and the melancholic deluge of The Jesus & Mary Chain, with a very healthy dose of early 90s shoegaze pop thrown in for good measure. The touchstones and influences are readily apparent, but what this release lacks in originality it makes up for with a very enjoyable, well written work out in dark, reasonably melodramatic indie rock.
‘Act 1’, of course, kicks things off in tumultuous and instrumental style, with raging guitars, brooding bassline and a pummelled kit, leading to ‘Linger Around’, which retains an abrasive style and decent pace, but this time with an effective, intoned vocal turn.
‘Walking On Fire’, an earlier single, is the first indication of a greater level of accessibility, as it comes on a bit Mumm-Ra initially (the band from Sussex, not the undead evil sorcerer from Thundercats), and then settles into something, dare I say it, of anthemic scale. ‘Million Year Picnic’ and ‘Someday’ continue Maff’s mid album transition to a sunnier disposition, the former actually benefiting greatly from the space afforded by a lack of distortion, while ‘Someday’ drops the pace, introduces female backing vocals, and delivers an entirely pleasant and Lush/Sundays-like ballad.
Maff step on the acceleration pedal again with the excellent ‘You’, five minutes of fuzzed out, blazing guitars and an irresistible hook, and then the surprisingly aggressive, super-charged ‘Planet Wave’, which is heavily indebted to Black Francis’ style of vocal delivery, and Pixies in general. Although this is something the band appear to be entirely comfortable with everyone knowing, unless the song title is an entire coincidence, and not in deference to ‘Planet of Sound’ and ‘Wave of Mutilation’.
The record concludes with the exceptionally poppy ‘Blue Seas’, which sees the vocal much higher in the mix for the first time, and a far more becalmed approach from the band, in what is essentially an inoffensive but limited outing to Indie Pop Central. Perhaps an odd track to end the album, considering the raucous post punk to be found elsewhere, and it does leave you hankering after a heftier, more appropriate conclusion.
There is certainly enough decent, debut material here to suggest that Maff have a solid foundation to build from, with the strength of the song-writing and a promising amalgamation of classic alternative guitar styles marking them out as ones to watch. Yes, it is a little derivative at times, and on future releases it will be interesting to see whether they can break out from the sum of their influences and become a band that will help to shape the sound of others.
