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Demo Review
Mach Schau Demonstration One
Article written by
Neil W - Aug 18, 2005
Mach Shau boldly claim to be “Southamptons finest punk rock and roll group”. It’s a particularly bold statement considering the searing Help She Cant Swim hail from that part of this small island. Let’s hope ‘Demonstration One’ lives up to this intrepid claim.
Track one, ‘Feel the Way’, starts off promising with a boisterous riff reminiscent of The Clash’s ‘What’s My Name.’ The song is full of youthful energy but it suffers from an unnecessary bog standard guitar solo and you can’t help but notice that the tune sounds awfully like ’99 Red Balloons’, which, as you can imagine, is a bit off-putting to say the least.
After the fast paced opener things get toned down considerably on track two and ‘Shoot the Blues’ slumps into a Britpop coma. The tune sticks in my head for a good few hours but it isn’t as unpleasant as having ’99 Red Balloons’ lodged firmly in there.
Will track three, ‘She Said’, lift them from the mid-tempo ramblings of ‘Shoot the Blues’? The answer is almost a yes. ‘She Said’ is a catchy, up-beat number that contains a similar punch and vocal delivery as The Libertines but it just sounds a little too familiar to be convincing. It also took me a while to work out what ‘She’ actually ‘Said’ but after repeated listens it seems like it’s a story about the troubles of a long distance relationship.
‘Demonstration one’ has demonstrated that Mach Shau are capable of producing memorable songs but with so many similar bands around at the moment I just don’t think they’re unique enough to break through. We shall see.