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Album Review
by SashaS
15-2-2004
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| Kinesis: more Rage ATM than Manics |
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Kinesis: 'Handshakes For Bullets'
(Independiente)
Slipped disc #17: Kinesis - Rock’s SWAT unit
The year’s releases started arriving promisingly but since then we’ve had records by Norah Jones [straight to the top of the LP charts!? - I expect to like it when I’m 64!] and John Frusciante [why bother?] and, but of course - Franz Ferdinand’s debut opus [No.3 debut?!]… In the case of the last one, we wish they discover inspiration that isn’t a homage to surprise us like The Cooper Temple Clause. Or, FF may turn off course…
Anyhow, let’s get back to where we were with albums we missed to review [for whatever disgraceful reason we could conjure up quickly] and before you forget what you should have bought during the year 2003AD!
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Following tours with the likes of Hundred Reasons, Hell is for Heroes, InMe, The Manic Street Preachers, and their own, politically charged anarcho-rockers Kinesis - Michael Bromley (vocals, guitar), Conor McGloin (guitar), Tom Marshall (bass), Neil Chow (drums) - have really made themselves proud with an ace of a debut album, ‘Handshakes For Bullets’.
New bands appear almost daily but there really are only few who don’t just jump on a bandwagon and catch a (fast) ride… to oblivion. Alas, there are so many bands out there that will not even earn a footnote in Rock’s history. But, Kinesis do not belong to that group, their album puts forward their candidacy for the elite, they do display potential to lead a wave.
Huge soundings songs are helped by lyrics content that doesn’t rely on the perma-topic of boy-meets/loses-girl, neither on catharsis per se nor angst… They care about the world that surrounds them and on their mind is everything, from the Uncle Sam’s traumatised playground to celebrities littering our attention. Kinesis can do emo [‘(Cling To Your) Innocence’] but their manual is generally an attack on the conveyer belt entertainment! Let’s all rush to the barricades and get if over with this dictatorship of kitsch!
The Kinesis’ language is aggro, they face you with riffs firing relentlessly, instruments of pleasure a-blazing, vigorous sounds buzzing about like emptied shells… Our ever-current, sort of try-to-stay-with-it PM, Tony Blair cannot like them which is just the best recommendation you can get. Mr B.Liar probably doesn’t even let his kids listen to this! [Sure, it’s safer and dumber to consume Linkin Fart! Or, God forbid, The Lostprophets.] What he and this government want is to have ‘A Generation Devoid of Inspiration’.
Released in a climate where the only remaining superpower is hell bent on sleeping with big business and waging wars over oil - pretending to be a ‘righteous conflict’ to rid us of terrorists and their pWMD [Phantom Weapons Of Mass Destruction] - recreate a nightmare scenario of 19th century economic imperialism backed by weapons of mass annihilation. The question ‘Handshakes For Bullets’ poses is not "Why are they talking about politics?" but rather, "Why isn't everyone else?". Includes the band’s quartet of excellent singles, ‘Billboard Beauty’, ‘Forever Reeling’, ‘... And They Obey’ and ‘One Way Mirror’.
Even if the Manic Street Preacher don’t retire [and we all know they should have already], Kinesis are the worthy usurpers. While most contemporary artists tend to sound like show-troupers, this lot are the rock’s SWAT unit.
8/10
SashaS
15-2-2004
Kinesis album ‘Handshakes For Bullets’ is available now on Independiente
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