Repomen - My Fantasy EP

  by John Clarkson

published: 1 / 12 / 2012

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Review

In their now twenty year career, the Sheffield-band RepoMen have become increasingly indefinable. The title track on their eleventh and latest EP, 'My Fantasy', finds RepoMen returning to their pop punk roots. A song about the bloody horror of the current conflict in Syria, it is matched by an equally bleak video made up of news footage from the Syrian streets. Singer Denzil Watson's chanted, falsetto vocal merges with Simon Tiller's rumbling bass and a snarling guitar line from drummer James Hughes, who takes a rare, but effective turn on lead guitar. The song's meaning is amplified at its conclusion by the instruments drifting away, and a slow drum beat from Hughes which is reminiscent of the crackle of bullets being fired. 'Immense Blue', which follows it, opens and closes with the sound of the sweeping wind and rain, and is a Gothic-tinged number with an epic, gusting sound. It pushes to its fore the cascading echoes of main songwriter and guitarist Ric Bower's Hammer Horror-style keyboards. 'Daith Ymlaen' in complete contrast is a sublime and gently echoing piano instrumental, while 'Talking Heads Dream' is a wistful, softly-strummed acoustic ballad. Then there is the deceptive 'Lower', which despite its swaggering, upbeat guitars and soaring vocals, has a dark undercurrent in its tale of an obsessive love affair gone badly wrong. ‘My Fantasy’ is concluded with the glorious 'Who is That Man?', a slow-burning, softly lush number that finishes the EP in a crescendo of gloriously understated vocal harmonies. 'My Fantasy' finds RepoMen, as on their previous EPs, shifting chameleon-like from form to form. They are a group that continuously pushes themselves to new heights

Track Listing:-

1 My Fantasy
2 Immense Blue
3 Daith Ymlaen
4 Talking Heads Dream
5 Lower
6 Who Is That Man?

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/RepoMenband
https://repomen.bandcamp.com/
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5z7b