Firstly, I’d like to apologise to the band for the time it
took me to get this review out. I’ve been in touch in the interim, but four
months after receiving the promo copy should be, and is, unacceptable. With
that out of the way, on to the EP itself. Although I don’t have the packaging
in front of me (left it in Oxford like a twit), I remember it being pleasantly,
but not fantastically presented. It’s a very simple digipack – without booklet
or anything. However, the presentation is more than adequate for what I believe
to be their first EP. The artwork is done in a noir style, with some hideous
creature (or maybe it’s one of the members) skulking around in the dark – it’s
not the prettiest thing you’ll ever see, but it does suit the music contained
therein.
As for the music, the band claim to take influence from acts
like At The Drive In, Shellac, Blood Brothers and The Dillinger Escape Plan.
Unfortunately, as the only one of those four I’ve heard is the latter, I’m not
really qualified to comment on that, but what the music provides is noisy (an
attribute provided by the delicious fuzzy bass sound), angular math rock with
hardcore influence (but stopping short of full-blown mathcore). From my limited
experience within that region (I’m afraid I didn’t really explore much more
once I heard Cows), the style is executed adequately but not fantastically.
Indeed, although there are some hooks within the music, they are rather
transient in the memory, and after four listens to the (fifteen-minute) EP, I
could remember nothing save for the general sound and parts of the first and
final tracks (the latter of which had a video released – once again, it’s nice
to know that a band know what their stronger material is). Indeed, the fact
that structures and melody-rhythm associations are often repeated does nothing
to help the memorability of the material.
The sound would, I think, be made a little more interesting
were the short noisy passages to be extended, either the quieter ones or simply
the short passages of crushing atonality. This is not solely for the fact that
they provide contrast to the otherwise nigh-on relentless stop-start approach
to the music (which, although enjoyable in small doses, should not be repeated for
fifteen minutes lest they become nothing but irritating in my humble opinion),
but also because they themselves seem well-composed and, in the heavier atonal
sections, project an almost nihilistic feeling at the listener. They would also
help, I suppose, to distinguish KGC more from the rest of the scene and provide
them with a unique style (for what it’s worth, they’re closer to Godflesh than
Meshuggah).
Instrumentally, it would be lying to suggest that KGC are
anything but competent – although for the most part nothing particularly
special technicality-wise is attempted, none of it is particularly simple to
play (or at least, none of it seems to be, syncopated rhythms abound in the EP).
Furthermore, the production of each instrument is done nicely, and it comes
cohesively together as a whole. Despite my gripes above about the composition,
the result of this is that KGC would work very nicely as background music were
it not for the undoubtedly-intrusive stop-start approach. I must, however, say
that there is one weak point instrumentally – the vocalist, although competent,
is very generic in approach and really adds nothing to the music. I’d go as far
as to suggest that this would do just as well were it fully instrumental.
To summarise, I’d say that although there is nothing
inherently wrong with the music of Kabul Golf Club, there is likewise little to
elevate them above being ‘average’. Math-rock aficionados may disagree with me,
but there is nothing special about this. It’s not offensive – far from it – but
I really would not recommend going out of your way to seek it out.
5/10
I'm not sure whether I have permission to post a download link, but apparently The Elementary Revolt posted one at the band's request, so I'll link you there.
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