Grip-Like Vice – Get Super EP
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| Grip-Like Vice - Get Super EP |
Release Date: Out Now
Saint Austell quartet Grip-Like
Vice have been blipping away on the edge of my radar for a while now but they
started advancing rapidly towards the centre, like a torpedo, with the release
of their new EP, ‘Get Super’. Despite what looks like a mock up for the new Burtons
advertising range on the cover, there is something about the colour and vibrancy
that these four bring to a release that is hard to ignore, let alone resist.
The first of the six tracks is ‘Passable Face’ and it soon hits it’s stride
with choppy guitars and wonky synths wrapped around a smooth indie vocal
delivery that puts this somewhere between the Automatic and the Feeling in the
indie-pop spectrum of things.
Just to keep you on your toes, ‘The
Mystery of Mr. E’ plays with the preconceptions of indie-pop by throwing in a beefy
rhythm section break that is more Rage Against the Machine than Scouting for
Girls which is the direction the rest of the song takes. ‘Superguy’ opens like
a reboot of ‘Strawberry Fields’ but soon unfolds as genuinely endearing and
terribly English lament with real heart and a sense of humour. On ‘Ambulance’ the
guitars get more choppy and urgent, like a Weezer track, until the Young Knives-esque
element of British observation takes over and the song veers off in a new
direction. This is a talent and a habit for Grip-Like Vice on this record and,
if this was a child, you’d probably be diagnosing ADHD but that’s something to be
cherished and embraced in a creative spectrum so let’s not dwell on this too
much.
As the EP nears the end, we get ‘Change’
with it’s stuttering guitars and Squeeze-like vocals at first hesitant but then
growing in confidence and purpose as it calls on the world to change and
refocus on the world – an ambitious effort for two minutes and forty seconds of
song. ‘Vendor’ closes the EP and it continues on a theme of change which gives
this collection an overriding sense of needing to release energy, make a
difference, take a new direction or just do something to liven things up. If
you want an EP that’s going to pick you up, shake you by the shoulders and
demand your attention through sheer energy and ideas then ‘Get Super’ might
just be the one for you.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/griplikevice/