They Came From The Stars, I Saw Them - The Unstoppable Kite EP (This Is Not An Exit)
2/5
By: Michael Cragg
They Came From The Stars, I Saw Them have possibly the worst band name ever imagined. Judging by their musical output and the photos on their website it may have been thought up following some pretty heavy duty narcotics. It's so bad that it alone makes me want to find whoever came up with it and batter them with a large stick. Alas, add to the mix the music on their new EP 'The Unstoppable Kite', and the potent desire for murder is only heightened.
Featuring just four members, TCFTSIST (even that's an improvement) do make one hell of a racket. The problem for them is that it walks the fine line between pretentious claptrap and creative genius, a balancing act that falls all too often into the former. To be fair to them, the title track is a grower, a cacophony of electronic bleeps, handclaps and battered synths that recalls The Go! Team combined with 'Fantasma'-era Cornelius. It sounds like the theme tune to a lost children's TV show from the seventies, but it's DIY aesthetic is firmly placed in 2007.
However, the band seem unable to leave a good song well alone; after three and a half minutes the song drifts dreamily towards its conclusion only to be vandalised by a sample of the "Eee Orr" noise from Family Fortunes! That's right, the noise you hear when someone makes an ill-judged guess on a quiz show hosted by vacuous beanpole Vernon Kay. To some this may represent every aspect of post-modern irony, displaying a knowing wink or a cute nudge nudge, but in reality it very nearly ruins the only good song the EP.
Second track 'Livin' On An Island' attempts a dissection of modern culture over clattering drums but sounds dull and irritatingly 'now'. 'It's Always Boomtime (Part Two)' isn't much better, it's unappealing drone making you reach for the stick I was talking about earlier. The EP ends with a full length album version of 'The Unstoppable Kite', which only serves to show them stretching out their one good idea to near breaking point.
TCFTSIST look and sound like they're having a lot of fun and maybe that's all that counts these days. Unfortunately, they seem to have forgotten the tunes, which is a problem when you're a new band looking to get noticed. 'The Unstoppable Kite' may float some boats in Hoxton or Shoreditch, but it will leave most people nonplussed. Nonplussed and with splinters in their hands.
Artists in this article: They Came From The Stars, I Saw Them
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