Pipeline Magazine, Spring 2008.
By Alan Taylor.
The titles might indicate an organ-based set of '60s themes and the band's name might suggest a heavy surf influence, but only the '60s themes bit is true. The Reverb Syndicate are in fact a '60s style guitar four-piece with a good clean echo sound and just the occasional contribution on organ from the second guitarist. They play with feeling, drop in a little damped picking, let some notes ring out, and both guitarists give the tremolo arm a solid workout.
The majority of the tracks are sprightly up-tempo pieces with a few moody slower numbers mixed in for variety. They are strong on melody and the band have worked up some excellent arrangements with fine use of dynamics. Whilst there's nothing strong enough for a '60s record company to have pulled off for a single, it's all good solid album fare. With no reason to employ the skip button this is an eminently listenable set.
(c) 2008 Pipeline Magazine. |
