ERRORS – How Clean Is Your Acid House? (Rock Action)
Posted: March 9th, 2006, by Marceline SmithI kept coming back to these songs while I was away on tour as they made me homesick for Glasgow in an oddly comforting way. The times I broke out of the unreality of the touring bubble to take my iPod and wander the streets were some of my favourite times of the tour. These songs fit so well with the clear light of Glasgow and wherever I was I always found myself looking at the sky: the strongest bluest sky against the red sandstone in Glasgow, sunset on Brighton beach, trees silhouetted against the fading light in the back streets of West London.
Errors have an ear for detail that keeps things constantly interesting across this 5 track EP; crackles and flutters that pinprick the heart and accentuate a sound which manages to be both lush and sparse, fluid and technical and full of heart-in-mouth dynamics. There’s a moment in the middle of opener Mr Milk where things build back with such delicious anticipation that every time I hear it my hand goes up involuntarily to smother the stupid grin on my face when the beat kicks back in.
If you want more prosaic comparisons, Errors take cues from label mentors Mogwai’s electronic dabblings on Rock Action (the album) and match it with the attic bedroom inventiveness and seasonal disorder of Hood. You can’t pin them down quite that easily though as they mix and match genres and instrumentation with little concern finding room for loping basslines, echoing scraped guitars and a myriad of synth sounds. Terror Tricks has intricately clever laptop beats that skitter alongside mournful vocoder but there’s also warmth, playfulness and a sense of humour (and a love for throbbing synths that go URRRRR) that steers things well away from IDM clinical anxiety. Looks like I may have been too hasty in rescinding Errors’ title as my new favourite band.
Top marks too for the parquet and chintz decorated sleeve. Oh, if only Rock Action could have stretched to the real things.
Marceline Smith
Marceline is the fierce, terrifying force behind diskant.net, laughing with disdain as she fires sharpened blades of sarcasm in all directions. Based in Scotland, her lexicon consists of words such as 'jings', 'aboot' and 'aye': our trained voice analysts are yet to decipher some of the relentless stream of genius uttered on a twenty-four hour basis. Marceline's hobbies include working too much and going out in bad weather.
http://www.marcelinesmith.com