East India Youth - Culture of Volume
Undeniably intriguing.
As the opening track plays, two things strike me - either this album could balance perfectly between experimental electronica and modern rock, or a replica of a soundtrack to an 8bit game gone incredibly wrong. 'Culture of Volume' exists in the middle, using intermissions to seamlessly offer breaks from the intensity of each song and allows time to prepare for the next. Admittedly, the pace of the album slows down dramatically, as shown in Carousel, which is unnecessarily haunting but does well in dampening the mood of Hearts That Never. To its detriment, there are glaring mistakes which overstep the line from a tangible experience to abstract incompetence. Maybe this is due to the nature of the music, or the duration of the album. Everything in this album links together. From the sparing use of authoritative lyrics, to the album art created by Norwich's own Dan Tombs, every piece used to create this work is calculated. Whether this is effective or not is questionable, but it is safe to say, Culture of Volume is undeniably intriguing.
7.5/10
