EP Review: Helioshiva

I’m guessing Wellington alt rock band You Barbarians are a newish band on the Wellington scene though there is quite a mature sense to the song writing featured on their 5 track EP, Helioshiva.

The packaging of the EP is very cool and unique with almost a type of greeting card style to it, it looks good and made me want to check out the music and seeing where it was mixed (at STL studios, Wellington) definitely made for some strong appeal.

The EP opens with some strong dynamic guitar riffing and some rather cool musical ideas, those ideas stay strong throughout.

The vocalist David Curry reminds me a little of Morrissey in his approach and the use of other stringed instruments such as violin in the tracks do make for a unique sound.

One downside to the positive is on the song Northern Suburbs there are some serious tuning issues going on between the vocals and backing vocals while the drums and guitars seems to slip in and out of time a fair bit with each other which is a shame because it detracts from what could be pretty flawless if more attention was paid to those areas.

This EP is a raw, gritty and phat sounding release other than what I mentioned above… a lot of bands like to stay away from click tracks and pitch correcting programs on recordings but if used properly these tools enhance the product rather than fool people into sounding like a band you are not.

That said, if the vocals were worked on and the drums were edited a little, I would have it on personal rotation. Good tuning and editing are important to my ears, though I can only speak for myself but I strongly encourage all musicians to pay attention to the finer points of these things because it can make all the difference to the listener.