As mentioned previously, I am now apparently on mailing lists for publicists. So I've been getting a few random packages lately, and while some have been good, in the grand tradition (from what I understand) of unsolicited mailings, I've mainly been piling them in a stack awaiting some magic moment to run through them.

But one caught my eye, I guess because of the line in the press release that compared them to PJ Harvey. Well, thought I, I pretty much like anything that sounds like PJ Harvey, so why not?

I am listening to them now. They are called Bellafea.

(Do not be put off by the bio. I know it makes them sound like a pretentious White Stripes--or, er, like the White Stripes, but pretentious in a different way--but they are not even kinda. If you want to ref a non-PJ artist, try Jucifer.)

There are 6 tracks on the EP and three of them are 100% fantastic. It starts off with a 1:30-long track that's just handclaps and vocals, but doesn't sound particularly folky. It just sounds pretty and awesome and pretty awesome. ("Grood," if you will.) Then the second track comes in with feedback and then the feedback stops for a voice and a chicken-lickin' funk guitar, and then it's all whaaaaaang! and loud and yelly. And then it's quiet some more and then at the end it's really really really loud. Really, really fucking good. And the last track is very reminiscent of PJ's "The River" or "We Float," acoustic and quiet but quietly intense. Plus, the drummer has a tendency to lapse into disco beats, which makes zero sense, but which I appreciate nevertheless.

There are two tracks up on the site, neither of which are on the EP, and neither of which represent them very well, I think--"No Reply" makes them sound like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, which they do not, and "Seasons," while OK, is also reminiscent of a Rosebuds b-side or something. If I get a chance, I may post the first two tracks here at some point, but, y'know, I do want to get that award someone was handing out to anyone who didn't start an MP3 blog in 2004.

The EP doesn't come out until March, but maybe I'll write a more cohesive review at some point.

posted by Mike B. at 10:46 AM 0 comments