The Ticket 18/02/05
66E 'Fall Down Seven Times Stand Up Eight'
So, what comes after post rock? For 66e, an Irish/Scottish five-piece surely entitled to springboard from The Redneck Manifesto and Mogwai into undiscovered territory, their ''uncompromising'' approach has been to take all the stasis and portent of rock that refuses to rock, then cake it in sadness and add vocals. With the proverbial determination of their debut's title, 66e are clearly undaunted by shoehorning song structures back into experimentalism, and often they get away with it. When they rise above low-rent Sigur Ros droning, Scrambled Pictures, 66e Are Home and Meanings and Traffic are almost affecting. This is, however, an album that demands a love for metronomic guitars, eons of epic fuzz, then sudden, stabbing descents - not to mention an ability to indulge Edward Cullen's obliquely dreary vocals. ''Are you an actual person?'' he moans, inconsolable yet catatonic. ''Yes? No?''
Peter Crawley
|