thecontrast.net

The Contrast received a nice write up for their recent gig on home turf. Here it is in full with a link to the magazine that it came from.

The Contrast
Unity @ Goodbarns Yard, Peterborough – July 31 2008
The Contrast are a ‘proper band’. Not in terms of success, although in that sense too they are a ‘prop er band’. They have gained recognition in America, recording five albums on a New York-based record label, and received plenty of radio play and media cove

rage on that side of the atlantic. But a ‘proper band’ in terms of their music.

The songs they offer us here at Goodbarns tonight – and they must play for approaching an hour – are the sort of old school, fully rounded songs which good, experienced musicians used to write before this new era of bands having to be flavour of the minute became… well…flavour of the minute.

Sounding generally like the sort of musical genre that is home to the likes of REM and, more particularly, Elvis Costello, it is not difficult to see why The Contrast would find an enthusiastic audience in the US. What is probably more surprising is that they haven’t quite achieved the same recognition in their native country.

They are at once simple and complex. Watch rhythm guitarist Kieran Wade, and you’ll see that the songs are rooted mostly in basic open chords. At the same time, front man Dave Reid is capable of the sort of guitar solos that aspiring shedders would die for, but never plays them for the sake of it, only ever to add something to the music. It’s this fusion of simplicity and complexity, the balance between basic structures and technical ability used sparingly, and the synergy of good lyrics and strong melody, which put these songs, and this band, in a class above.

As if to remind us that they are not entirely American-influenced, a cover of The Beatles’ ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ is thrown in towards the end, sounding enormous and still relevant, despite being forty years old. On this showing it’s about time we caught up with the Americans, and gave this band the recognition that they clearly deserve.
- Paddy Burke, Art and Soul magazine

http://www.artandsoulmagazine.com/issue18/