When a new or relatively new band pops up, you instinctively perk up your ears to hear where it is coming from, or, a bit more bluntly put, what its key influences are. And more often than not, even when things are quite obvious, the band members are usually shy or even coy about it, speaking about ‘their own thing’.
Well, Cody Hudgins, Ezra Engler, Henry Smith, and Juan Angulo, or Brooklyn quartet Crate, don’t feel the need to do so when their self-titled debut album comes into question. They openly cite the noisier end of My Bloody Valentine, the quieter end of American Analog Set, Acetone, and Duster, with Guitar’s ‘Sunkissed’ cited directly as a production touchstone for its reversed vocals and chopped, rebuilt loops.
Yet, that openness is the only way for the listeners to discern whether such an approach brings a good take on the influences and also realise that Crate do bring along something of their own during the process. A different approach to songwriting is noticeable here between Hudgins and Engler brings that personal element that spells a difference between simple imitation and hearing your influences through your own ears and minds and presenting them as something of your own.
Crate not only do their influences justice, but make a note that at some point they will evolve into something that just might be truly their own.
