Artist: Castles
Title: You, the Organ Grinder
Type: Album
Label: Eyes of Sound

The information pack that came with this album very handily provided me with a few notes about Castles, just in case the journalistic recipient doesn’t quite know what to make of it all. It explains a few things that Castles are. They are rock, three, towering and intense, to give just a few of the descriptions. They are also not gimmicky or run of the mill. Normally, this manner of suggestion would leave me just begging to find fault with their self-analysis, but on this occasion, I really can’t. Castles are certainly not run of the mill. They have an eclectic sound that is a mixture of a number of different styles, and as is often the case, some of it works, and some of it is short of the mark.

As described, Castles are three, the three in this case being Belgians Bertrand Bourguignon and Jérome Considérant along with Vocalist Edward Godby, formerly of now defunct Manchester Mathcore purveyors Beecher. Elements of that Mathcore background remain here, primarily in the lyrical style of Godby; but also in the whole sense of order in chaos to be found in the bizarre mixture of classic rock, prog, punk and metal. On a musical level, it’s very hard to fault them, with intricate guitar work, very tight drumming, that only occasionally sounds like it belongs to a different song, and an energy and attitude that keeps you on your toes. It’s certainly not a relaxing experience.

Influences bombard you from all angles, yet there’s none that stick around for long. There’s Yob, Killing Joke, At the Drive In, Tool…it’s truly all over the place and whilst you’d think that a mixture of all that just doesn’t make sense, strangely it does. Almost. Most of the time. Ok, so there are a few niggling little gripes that I have that stop this getting a glowing recommendation, the first one being Godby’s voice. Now, I was never a fan of Beecher, but then I generally cannot abide Mathcore at any rate; however Godby’s voice here is much improved from those days, drawing comparison here to latter day Jaz Coleman. The only problem with that is that he tends to stick to one tone, and over the course of an album, that gets tiresome, and then eventually boring. The music does much to make up for this, but occasional bursts of discordancy just for the sake of it tend to upset the balance. There is one, much bigger problem though than this triviality, and that is that it simply isn’t memorable. Due to the nature of the music, and the often repetitive nature of the vocal style, nothing remains lodged in your head after listening. It’s quite bizarre how such an interesting album can be so unmemorable.

Despite the issues, there is much to like here. Musically at times, it’s excellent, particularly on ‘Pyramids’, ‘Colossus Knut’ and ‘Diamond Heel’, and the vocals do compliment the music well, although as stated previously, it could do with more variation in style. Overall though, there is a pervading sense of something new and actually interesting happening here. It’s not the finished article I would say, but there’s enough here to make this worth checking out. It’s definitely a bit different, and for that alone, it deserves a listen. ‘You, The Organ Grinder’ is the sound of a work in progress, and I’ll certainly be interested to hear what Castles come up with next.

http://www.castlesband.net

Lee Kimber

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