{"id":3732,"date":"2016-11-03T20:00:37","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T20:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-varvara-death-defying-tricks\/"},"modified":"2018-03-22T22:43:55","modified_gmt":"2018-03-22T22:43:55","slug":"review-varvara-death-defying-tricks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-varvara-death-defying-tricks\/","title":{"rendered":"Review:\u00a0Varvara &#8211; Death Defying Tricks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"tmblr-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/b7a26b044533f0edb37c4ad3c2c22cb8\/tumblr_og2yb7eobr1r8no6so1_1280.jpg\" width=\"250em\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n<p>Not to be confused with the Russian pop singer of the same name, Finnish garage-rock band <b>Varvara<\/b> recruited esteemed Swedish producer Pelle Gunnerfeldt (The Hives, Refused) for their third effort &#8211; <i>\u2018Death Defying Tricks\u2019<\/i>. Their derivative sound owes to certain seminal releases by influential indie acts of the 2000s, while on a basic level aspiring to the brutish rock\u2019n\u2019roll of the Rolling Stones. Though initially seeming one-dimensional, <i>\u2018Death Defying Tricks\u2019<\/i> rewards repeated listens through a revealing of sharp attention to detail.<\/p>\n<p>Mikko Kiri channels Julian Casablancas with a softly distorted vocal, unfailingly cool and often scarcely audible. Despite this, he delivers a number of wryly amusing lines which endearingly often fail to entirely bridge the language gap. Indeed, he often settles for a well-placed profanity, which is curiously satisfying &#8211; and another nod to Casablancas.<\/p>\n<p><!-- more --><\/p>\n<p>While The Strokes\u2019 influence extends to the dominant guitars, crisply overdriven and raggedly interweaving, <b>Varvara<\/b> are not a band limited to or confined by their reference points. The middle 8 of <i>\u2019Caught\u2019<\/i> is that rare moment in a song &#8211; one that may induce an involuntary smile and shake of the head at its genius. Kiri\u2019s croon shifts to delicate falsetto over a lone guitar, before the introduction of brass ushers in the final chorus. It\u2019s a stunning ninety seconds, indicative of genuine talent.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere, single <i>\u2018Human Being\u2019<\/i>\u2019s stabbing bass gives way to a euphoric chorus, while <i>\u2018Arrows\u2019<\/i> draws on early Radiohead, but with meatier riffs and more brass. The faint keyboard on <i>\u2018Since We Can\u2019t Explain\u2019<\/i> is a further surprise late in the album, but it never feels misplaced.<\/p>\n<p><i>\u2018Death Defying Tricks\u2019<\/i> is an intriguing piece of work. First impressions are indeed deceiving, and don\u2019t for a second believe that this is landfill copycat indie. It has the unmistakeable air of a group yet to truly discover they own identity, but frankly, <b>Varvara<\/b> sound as if they are perfectly content with that.<\/p>\n<p>3.5\/5<\/p>\n<p><i>\u2019Death Defying Tricks&rsquo;<\/i> by <b>Varvara<\/b> released on November 4th on <b>Haminian Sounds<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Varvara<\/b> links: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.varvaraband.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Website<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/varvaraband\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/varvaraband\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/varvara.bandcamp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bandcamp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Peter Stewart (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/pstewart0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@pstewart0<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not to be confused with the Russian pop singer of the same name, Finnish garage-rock band Varvara recruited esteemed Swedish producer Pelle Gunnerfeldt (The Hives, Refused) for their third effort &#8211; \u2018Death Defying Tricks\u2019. Their derivative sound owes to certain seminal releases by influential indie acts of the 2000s, while on a basic level aspiring [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":15891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2731,2732,15030,2725],"class_list":["post-3732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-death-defying-tricks","tag-haminian-sounds","tag-peter-stewart","tag-varvara"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review:\u00a0Varvara - Death Defying Tricks - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Not to be confused with the Russian pop singer of the same name, Finnish garage-rock band Varvara recruited esteemed Swedish producer Pelle Gunnerfeldt\" \/>\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:\u00a0Varvara - 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