My immediate impressions almost had me overlooking Young Buffalo, as I listened to the first track, "Only We Can Keep You From Harm". It's not that it's not a decent track, which it definitely is, but it lacked focus and, this may be a good thing, displays a variety of musical directions--slow chant gospel, African/jungle rhythms, some electronic noises, almost punk-like vocals, and the true percussion use of bells towards the end. I just did not know what to expect. So, when I listened to "Catapilah", I was surprised in a way that they were actually more of a full of energy sound, somewhat repetitive but progressive-in-nature enjoyable drum beats and three part harmony (akin to The Beach Boys I suppose, as they cite on their Facebook here). They have also been compared briefly to The Dodos, which I also agree with except that The Dodos are more lo-fi. So, track two, "Speak EZ" is more of a warm-up towards the sound I really prefer from this album, and hope they continue to go in. Meanwhile, track three heats it up, "Full Metal Whacket" is superb, reminiscent of Tokyo Police Club, Vampire Weekend (of course), Hungry Kids of Hungary--all the types of post-punk, high energy groups that are popular nowadays, which is hopefully going to run new wave out for good (yes, I don't like it)! "Catapilah" has a great balance of single voice and triples later on where it really adds a lot, when they yell "ladadadadadalada" (I think...). Overall, on this album, the counterpoint-ish use of vocals is a great touch and gives them one up on many other groups that do not have that capacity for harmony or melody. The last track, "Bury Me" kind of starts off like it is winding up, again in that mid energy range to show they can do more than just high energy. But, it still needs some work and sounds a bit dopey, like most of The Strokes music before they get to the chorus or best hook section in each song (OK, Angles was an anomaly to this formula). There is even a head banging Chinese (you'll get what I mean when you hear it) rock sounding section that doesn't seem to quite fit, but as Young Buffalo is fairly new, they are aloud to experiment and ultimately decide where they want to end up. Let's just hope, like so many other bands, they do not go mainstream and lose their identity. I'd rather ten more albums like this than one that is boring and predictable.
Their entire discography to my knowledge is on bandcamp, check it out here. I've put the track "Full Metal Whacket" over on the right under 'Monthly Sample Tracks'. Once August is gone, check out their tunes through the bandcamp link, enjoy!
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