Musicians often dislike them, but I find comparisons the best way to approach releases by new, or little-known, bands. It’s unlikely interest will spring out of nowhere, and even more that they’ll reach a wide enough audience at first to make the use of such comparisons useless. An unknown quantity has a chance to spark up some interest if they can be placed on a map and sap some of the attention from their more renowned peers. On their new self-titled EP, High-Wycombe’s own Tigers Of Junction Street give making the majority of my first paragraph obsolete their very best shot. ’Tigers Of Junction Street’ is a very capable first throw at finding one’s own voice, one which finds them sitting somewhere between melodic post-hardcore and prog-rock.
Still, comparisons I promised, and comparisons I will deliver. My initial thought as I delved into opening track ’Incarnation’’s first couple of seconds, knowing nothing of the band, was that Tigers Of Junction Street might actually be little more than a glorified Funeral For A Friend for those listeners smarter than they are emotional. There’s more to them than that however. There’s a similar intensity and, at times even, vocal traits to those of Emarosa. Pepper a hint of a less frenetic Protest The Hero and you might start to get an idea of how these guys delicately skirt genre adherence, and that’s just within the first track. It doesn’t hurt that it’s decent as well.
’The Deception’ veers into slightly more conventional post-hardcore territory, though it’s still packed with little pleasures: surprise melody-heavy sections, not your typical breakdowns, an atmospheric breather, and even a cheeky solo on ‘Cold Winter’. The closing combo of ’Interlude’ and the ’Closed Doors’ that it leads into is essentially the band at their best. The former’s instrumental piano and electronics’ delicate atmosphere leads into the pounding drums of the latter, a track that confidentally bounces from muscular riffage to soft-strummed acoustic guitars and back again. Endlessly melodic, just technical enough, gleefully versatile, ’Closed Doors’ is the epitome of what Tigers Of Junction Street are about, and I here’s to hoping there’s more to be heard sooner rather than later
3.5/5
’Tigers Of Junction Street’ by Tigers Of Junction Street is out now on Hoffen Records.
Tigers Of Junction Street links: Facebook|Bandcamp|Twitter
Words by James Berclaz-Lewis (@swissbearclaw)
