Ever hungry for new bands to enjoy, I find an easy method is to align yourself with the label of a band you like. This logic worked wonders with Deathwish Inc. and so far, Church Road Records have provided me with the brilliant music of Hidden Mothers and now Cambridge quintet Indifferent Engine. It so happens that their debut album Speculative Fiction will be released to the world via both labels.
The band don’t shirk away from naming El Paso’s At The Drive-In as an influence. Putting it quite simply, they’ve clearly spent a lot of time listening to their classic Relationship of Command album. The similarities are multiple, and I’ll refer to them in the course of this review. There’s a little red herring to open the album in the form of ‘The Waiter’ all swirling guitars that weave around you like dry ice as Adam Paul tenderly sings in an almost falsetto style. Only when Alex Wheatley’s bass rumbles do you sense impending volume eruption which comes as drums and heavy guitars pile into the mix. Adam settles into his main vocal style, one part Cedric Bixler-Zavala, one part Knocked Loose’s Bryan Garris.
A scorching one-note guitar line penetrates your cranium in the rip snorting ‘Crashing Into A Hillside In The Dead Of Night’. As the song veers between loud and quiet tones Adam switches effortlessly between roar and soar. The guitar work from Ellis Hale and Tom Wilson is immediate and inventive and there’s a pleasing level of heft and melody. The sampled distressed voice of an air controller at the end brings a deathly chill. In ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ Alister Gibbons drops choppy drums while angular guitars and spidery guitar lines allowing Adam to tear a hole in his larynx. Hurtling along at breakneck pace it’s an energetic workout that will have moshpits going crackers in the future.
A stomach-churning bass groove underpins the slinky ‘Pylon Cult’. Easing back in terms of tempo the song is spacious and all the better for it. ‘Bitcrush’ drops the instrumentation into a workout of experimental sounds, mellow guitars and slightly more sedated beats. The desperation in Adam’s voice as he repeats “…that you’re never coming back” sends chills down the spine. Warm tones wash over you in the brief ‘Wormholes’, an oasis of calm in the midst of all the fury. The seismic drop of the blustery ‘Modern’ violently kicks off the second part of the album. The guitars slam like an angry sea against the rocks, cymbals crashing and splashing. Little piano flicks embellish the sound showcasing a fine attention to detail.
A dirty scuzzy bass riff launches the scathing ‘Crescents’ as Adam switches between exasperated wails and anguished howls. With a fine clean singing voice, the melodic breakdown in the middle shines before the band launch into a blistering cavalcade of twisted riffs. Shimmering guitars are at odds with Alex’s sturdy bass line in the intriguing ‘Verdigris’. The song brings in some quirky dynamics as if trying to resist the lure of the distorted guitars that bite hard when they do break through. There’s a stunning use of might and melody in ‘Primrose & Acetate’ as it powers along grinding beautiful sparks off the metallic underbelly. Closing track ‘The Captain’ reminds me of Japanese post metallers Envy as quiet shimmering guitars get over consumed by anguished howls. Just as the album started, it is bookended with a reflective passage of delicate tones.
When the juxtaposition of noise and melody is carried out this well, it makes for a more appealing album to these ears. Having said that, Indifferent Engine are more inventive than just settling for any traditional quiet/loud/quiet dynamic. They let their songs breathe and Adam Paul is a fine vocalist in the vein of Chino Moreno, switching from mellow to rage with consummate ease. In Ellis and Tom, they have incredibly inventive players who have the same urge to confound as Omar Rodriguez-Lόpez. Given the right breaks, this album could potentially have the same respect as Relationship of Command in future years. An excellent debut.
