Errors - It’s Not Something, But It Is Like Whatever (Rock Action)
2/5
By: Charlie Potter
It's a surprising release for Rock Action, this instrumental electro pink-pop.
Errors have obviously cottoned on to the fact that they stand to make far more money as musicians having their music played on adverts than they do from playing shows or releasing records. Gosh, that sounds horrifically cynical doesn't it? Perhaps it is true what they say about me, but honestly, I think it could almost be the case here.
On closer inspection, you can see what label bosses Mogwai see in it. There is quite a lot of guitar layering to be found, and also song structures have that sort of 'missing the vocals' sound that very little instrumental music has. In fact, the more you look at it on paper, the more it makes me think that I should like this band because I really love Mogwai. But whereas Mogwai are one of the most evocative, intense and personal forces of creativity in music today, Errors too often just sound like they make music for morons to dance to.
Perhaps not, perhaps I got them all wrong, perhaps... it certainly seems the more I listen to Errors the more I can hear in it, and the closer music seems to being almost touching. But then another big problem with the record as a whole is that all of these tracks could have realistically been consolidated into one or two tunes which would leave me more time before I go to sleep in which to put on Come On Die Young and think 'ahhh, yes, this is the way it should be...'
But enough of the Mogwai comparisons! It could be said that's also a hint of Metronomy to this band, something to the weird the way the tracks build up and then sort of go away without an apology, like a preoccupied person at a busy party, or perhaps my grandma, she does that all the time.
A lot of the problems with It's Not Something, But It Is Like Whatever can be boiled down to the fact that all the synth lines are really rather weak and embarrassing, and not because of the sounds used, but because of the melodies. This is yet another in a long string of debut albums that just so clearly should have been an EP. As an album, it just needs more of anything. It hardly shifts in tone one atom throughout it's whole 45 minutes, and believe me, it feels a hell of a lot longer than 45 minutes.
There is nothing wrong with Errors, but on this display at least, there's not enough to them to warrant more than three songs. I imagine with their sound and their trendy look they will have some degree of success, just as I can imagine people in a live capacity not realising how tedious they are at length. Although they have quite a particular sound, one that has actually grown on me a lot, that's all they have; the same trick, every track.
Artists in this article: Errors
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