Redjetson - Other Arms

by Sarah Mwangi

published: 10 / 5 / 2009

Label: Gizeh Records
Format: CD

Somewhat anti-climatic post-rock on posthumous second album from Essex-based band Redjetson, who broke up last year

Review

Redjetson's disbandment last year was mutual and, I believe them. Maybe if they parted ways on more salacious terms and due to irreconcilable differences, ‘Other Arms’ would be guaranteed more of a reaction and attention rather than the see-you-around wave it will simply get. Most of the songs here are led by Clive Kentish’s seemingly broody vocals. He isn’t, however, able to convey dour yet optimistic overtones like the influences he’s trying to imitate, starting up convincingly but failing to keep that that intensity throughout. Which will make you wish that Redjetson were some melancholic indie-outfit and the guy singing first back-up in ‘Questions I Don’t Want To Ask’ was pushed to lead. It’s the first time you will hear the old-before-his-time sorrow and the last time you will believe it. At the first sound of the grimy distortion in ‘Count These Demons’ your excitement, however, will be restored again. In fact this will happen a number of times throughout the album as in ‘Soldiers and Dinosaurs’, where the heavy reverb will make you sit up straight anticipating the follow-through to be urgent, morose and thrashingly loud. There are hints of all three elements but again disappointment rules, as the effect is a sympathetic cry of vocals and guitars, not forgetting the xylophone. It certainly had us fooled. Simply, you wished they would have fiddled around with the equalizer a bit more to beef up their sound. When the wall of sound comes at you, you want it to hit you square in the jaw, leaving you in a daze. Instead it’s a lacklustre fight with tinny crashing cymbals and disorderly guitars. In the end you know who’s won that encounter. In no way is ‘Other Arms’ a throwaway album. Most bands would love to have created a sophomore album of this calibre but as a final swansong it fails to leave an impact. I would like to think that Redjetson made ‘Other Arms’ without knowing that it was to become their last, because if they had had that knowledge, I would like to think that it would have been a punchy post-rock requiem than the anti-climax it ultimately is. The biggest drawback 'Other Arms' will face is that band won’t be able to play inspired versions of these songs live; increasing the chances of it collecting dust as a book-end.

Track Listing:-

1 Soldiers & Dinosaurs
2 Beta Blocker
3 For Those Who Died Dancing
4 Questions I Don't Want To Ask
5 Count These Demons
6 Witch At The Controls
7 First Of The 47,000
8 (g)Listen
9 Threnody
10 These Structures