Listing Ships - Maiden Voyage

(self-release, 2011)

[NOTE: I’ve actually written reviews of this EP for both OMS and Music In Oxford]

Listing Ships combine elements of many of the great nineties post-rock bands; from the cyclical, jarring grooves of Rodan, the tense, spidery guitar work of Slint, the interlocking rhythms of Shipping News and the expansive, airy elegance of Tortoise. Add to that some anthemic guitar heroics via Siamese Dream-era Smashing Pumpkins and we’re clearly off to a winner. Opening track ‘Equus Ager’ is a glorious, triumphant start to the collection while ‘All Aboard the Andrea Doria’ builds from a Slint-playing-schizoid-jazz opening to an “oh-shit, Slint-are-about-to-sink-the-ship” finale. ‘Skipper’s Daughter’ borrows from the kinetic, rhythmic sonic palette of Tortoise and the whole collection nods to 90s-revialists like Broken Social Scene by way of a series of big indie choruses - choruses without words. Boasting former members of Witches and Sunnyvale, it was clear that Listing Ships would be an interesting band but Maiden Voyage illustrates that they’re on their way to becoming a great one.

[Originally printed in Oxfordshire Music Scene magazine, issue 13, April 2011]

http://www.oxfordmusicscene.co.uk/images/oms_issue13.pdf

Whether Maiden Voyage is a reference to the seminal Herbie Hancock album of the same name or merely a nautical metaphor for their debut release, Listing Ships arrive on our shores in a triumphant blaze of post-rock guitar heroics. This gang of merry sailors includes former members of Sunnyvale Noise Sub-Element and Witches and they return to the local scene in glorious fashion.

If it isn’t already implied by the repeated mentions of ‘post-rock’, this is a strictly instrumental affair and as such Maiden Voyage may divide opinion, but there’s enough going on here to grab the attention of even the most jaded of music fans. Opening track ‘Equus Ager’ is a nineties alternative and post-rock nostalgia trip, combining elements of Siamese Dream-era Smashing Pumpkins and Tortoise to create an anthemic, vast soundscape.

‘All Aboard the Andrea Doria’ starts with a nod to the jarring rhythms of legendary Louisville bands such as Slint and Rodan before easing into the expansive, airy sound of Tortoise and stretching out to the horizon. The song’s tense build up and terrifying, fuzzy outro (which is presumably the part where the Andrea Doria crashes into the SS Stockholm and sinks) suggests a band more indebted to Tweez than Spiderland. ‘Skipper’s Daughter’ successfully manages to evoke the stirring, kinetic motion of fresh water before it crescendos into a tidal wave of rollicking guitar fuzz that finally crests as the song comes to an end and the collection is over.

Listing Ships join the likes of Broken Social Scene and Yuck in having fun reinterpreting (some might say regurgitating) the aesthetics of alternative nineties guitar music and managing to create something interesting. It’s a shame that the ‘supergroup’ iron has already been branded onto these guys’ buttocks because all bands need to earn their place in the limelight but luckily Listing Ships have done that by making a really good first record.

[Originally published on Musicinoxford.co.uk, 12/04/2011]

http://www.musicinoxford.co.uk/2011/04/12/listing-ships-maiden-voyage/