{"id":1099,"date":"2017-10-11T10:12:20","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T10:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cassels-epithet\/"},"modified":"2018-03-22T23:29:52","modified_gmt":"2018-03-22T23:29:52","slug":"review-cassels-epithet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cassels-epithet\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Cassels &#8211;\u00a0Epithet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"tmblr-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/3f45a697f37f1976555a44d7da0b6be5\/tumblr_oczgq9lfGb1r8no6so5_r62_1280.jpg\" width=\"250em\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n<p>With <b>Cassels<\/b>, nothing really seems to add up. They&rsquo;re a duo, but have a great deal more dexterity can be expected from a typical two-piece. While they occupy a similar indie-rock \/ post-hardcore intersection as The Automatic and Yourcodenameis:milo, they&rsquo;re nowhere near as affable or radio-ready as those bands could be. Jim Beck&rsquo;s verbose ranting embodies the very soul of punk, but you&rsquo;d be hard-pressed to describe the music in the same way.<\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s certainly an odd dichotomy, the sort of collision of styles and ideas that would get a lesser band flustered far too easily. Except, on <i>&lsquo;Epithet&rsquo;<\/i>, <b>Cassels<\/b> can reasonably contain themselves for a listen that&rsquo;s definitely enchanting, if not always easy. And that&rsquo;s in no small part down to Beck&rsquo;s vocal approach, spitting spoken-word gymnastics in quick succession, almost giving tracks like <i>&#8216;War Is A Really Clever Metaphor For Divorce&rsquo;<\/i> and <i>&#8216;Where Baseball Was Really Invented&rsquo;<\/i> a vibe not dissimilar to an act like Sleaford Mods.<\/p>\n<p><!-- more --><\/p>\n<p>In fact, Sleaford Mods is probably the most pertinent comparison that can be made &#8211; a two-piece whose entire vision and ethos comes down to barbed broadsides about the UK&rsquo;s many wrongs over instrumentation that, might be minimalist, but has enough bite all the same. Here, tracks like <i>&#8216;Motor Skills&rsquo;<\/i> and <i>&#8216;Let&rsquo;<\/i> go down the route of delicate, spindly guitar lines bolstered by heavier backing tones and a thicker drumbeat, keeping them grounded without sanding away any rougher, acute edges.<\/p>\n<p>From that description alone, it should be enough to conclude that <i>&#8216;Epithet&rsquo;<\/i> isn&rsquo;t a listen for everyone. It&rsquo;s awkward, jagged and does away with convention entirely. But it&rsquo;s also deeply intelligent and incisive. <b>Cassels<\/b> mightn&rsquo;t be gunning for those mainstream slots, but this is definitely something worth exploring all the same, if only to see how interesting modern rock can be.<\/p>\n<p>3.5\/5<\/p>\n<p><i>&#8216;Epithet&rsquo;<\/i> by <b>Cassels<\/b> is out now on <b>Big Scary Monsters Records<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Cassels<\/b> links: <a href=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/casselsband\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/casselsofficial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/cassels.bandcamp.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bandcamp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Luke Nuttall (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nuttall_luke\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@nuttall_luke<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With Cassels, nothing really seems to add up. They&rsquo;re a duo, but have a great deal more dexterity can be expected from a typical two-piece. While they occupy a similar indie-rock \/ post-hardcore intersection as The Automatic and Yourcodenameis:milo, they&rsquo;re nowhere near as affable or radio-ready as those bands could be. Jim Beck&rsquo;s verbose ranting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":16693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[136,829,828,15029],"class_list":["post-1099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-big-scary-monsters-records","tag-cassels","tag-epithet","tag-luke-nuttall"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review: Cassels -\u00a0Epithet - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With Cassels, nothing really seems to add up. They&rsquo;re a duo, but have a great deal more dexterity can be expected from a typical two-piece. While\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: Cassels -\u00a0Epithet - Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With Cassels, nothing really seems to add up. They&rsquo;re a duo, but have a great deal more dexterity can be expected from a typical two-piece. While\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cassels-epithet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-10-11T10:12:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-22T23:29:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_oczgq9lfGb1r8no6so5_r62_1280.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Luke Nuttall\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Luke Nuttall\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Review: Cassels -\u00a0Epithet - Already Heard Staging","description":"With Cassels, nothing really seems to add up. They&rsquo;re a duo, but have a great deal more dexterity can be expected from a typical two-piece. While","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Review: Cassels -\u00a0Epithet - Already Heard Staging","og_description":"With Cassels, nothing really seems to add up. They&rsquo;re a duo, but have a great deal more dexterity can be expected from a typical two-piece. While","og_url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cassels-epithet\/","og_site_name":"Already Heard Staging","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/","article_published_time":"2017-10-11T10:12:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-03-22T23:29:52+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_oczgq9lfGb1r8no6so5_r62_1280.jpg","width":1,"height":1,"type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Luke Nuttall","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@alreadyhearduk","twitter_site":"@alreadyhearduk","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Luke Nuttall","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cassels-epithet\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cassels-epithet\/"},"author":{"name":"Luke Nuttall","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/355c8ef8136051dd158a626d1b0eaf08"},"headline":"Review: Cassels &#8211;\u00a0Epithet","datePublished":"2017-10-11T10:12:20+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-22T23:29:52+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cassels-epithet\/"},"wordCount":360,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cassels-epithet\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_oczgq9lfGb1r8no6so5_r62_1280.jpg","keywords":["Big Scary Monsters Records","Cassels","Epithet","Luke Nuttall"],"articleSection":["Album Reviews"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cassels-epithet\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cassels-epithet\/","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cassels-epithet\/","name":"Review: Cassels -\u00a0Epithet - Already Heard Staging","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cassels-epithet\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cassels-epithet\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_oczgq9lfGb1r8no6so5_r62_1280.jpg","datePublished":"2017-10-11T10:12:20+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-22T23:29:52+00:00","description":"With Cassels, nothing really seems to add up. They&rsquo;re a duo, but have a great deal more dexterity can be expected from a typical two-piece. While","inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cassels-epithet\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cassels-epithet\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_oczgq9lfGb1r8no6so5_r62_1280.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_oczgq9lfGb1r8no6so5_r62_1280.jpg"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#website","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","name":"Already Heard Staging","description":"Covering the best in alternative music as best as we can","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization","name":"Already Heard","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","width":500,"height":500,"caption":"Already Heard"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/","https:\/\/x.com\/alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/alreadyheard\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/already-heard\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/AlreadyHeardMusic","https:\/\/tiktok.com\/@alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.threads.net\/@alreadyheard"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/355c8ef8136051dd158a626d1b0eaf08","name":"Luke Nuttall","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e1e96a8963ae771ced274c7b1fb9d0f10c4c8cc7322763e02b13910b93790807?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e1e96a8963ae771ced274c7b1fb9d0f10c4c8cc7322763e02b13910b93790807?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e1e96a8963ae771ced274c7b1fb9d0f10c4c8cc7322763e02b13910b93790807?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Luke Nuttall"},"description":"Based in Liverpool, Luke has been writing for Already Heard since 2015, as well as founding and editing his own website The Soundboard around the same time.","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/author\/lukenuttall\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1099"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37640,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099\/revisions\/37640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}