Sailboats Are White - Turbo! (Poptones)
4/5
By: Charlie Potter
Don't get too excited, but I want you to imagine a cross between Trencher, Big Black, Arab on Radar and Suicide, but with David Yow (of The Jesus Lizard and Scratch Acid) singing. When I said this to my editor, he started laughing with excitement, and after trying to calm him down with a warm towel and some Calpol I had to explain to him that although they do sound like all these things, they aren't nearly as good as making those comparisons might make you think. They are however still really bloody good.
Out of all these influences it's Trencher whose sound they are probably closest to, the Casio style keyboard and style of playing is almost identical and the vocalist has a growling style much like the vocalist from Trencher. 'Singer' is a little far to go. They also have a positively grindy feel to them, getting through 13 tracks in 36 minutes. The thing that makes this band really interesting is the seamless crossover between this grind style and the almost dance styled, Big Black sounding drum machine. Also, when Sailboats' singer isn't growling, he has a sloppy slur reminiscent of David Yow - a slurring which completely disregards the mood of the song yet somehow never fails to work. It's admirable the way in which the band are not afraid to play very positive melodies in their ruff, coarse splatterings, and this is where Suicide come in - they seem to of managed to pick up Suicide's ability to be very sensitive and touching but at the same time retain some self respect.
So what can possibly be wrong with this band? Well the more I've listened to it the more I think not much, but it has to be said that you do have to be in the correct mood for this - it's pretty relentlessly pounding and sloppy, and not many bands can make a half hour album quite so tiring. Yes, it would be nice to be able to hear what the singer is saying, and also of course with the guitarist sounding like a cross between the guitarist from Arab on Radar and a whole load of old school punk bands, and the bass player also sounding quite old school punk, one could wonder what it is that they're bringing that's particularly new.
Well first of all I don't think that you could just throw all these elements together and hope that it worked - there's planning here. Also, you could argue that bands never truly bring their own sound to the table ever - it's merely a combination of other bands sounds. You could even take it one step further and argue that you would not recognise something as music unless you could assimilate it to something else that you already consider to be music. But you cannot deny that there are times when you hear some music and you think 'now that is like nothing I have ever heard before' (I for example will never forget the first time I heard Aphex Twin), and perhaps this band could do with a bit more of that factor, but there are defiantly big hints towards them doing just that on 'Turbo', and in the best bits of this great album, there are elements where they're already there.
Artists in this article: Sailboats Are White
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