Live: School of Seven Bells

I went to this on another's recommendation. School of Seven Bells proved to be somewhat enjoyable but not ultimately that great. As a band, they seem to be part of that shoegazing revival you hear about (and not the Krautrock revivals they were linked to in pre-publicity), but I felt that they were not really bringing that much to the table, straying worryingly close to Curve-tribute-band territory. Do not get me wrong, I love me Curve, and I love me shoegazing, but I am not really down with a total lack of innovation.

Looking up at what I have written and thinking back to the show, I am maybe being a bit hard on the School of Seven Bells (a band composed of two twin sisters, apparently from Argentina, and some bloke, all of them uncommonly small). The concert was in and of itself enjoyable enough, but the lack of that spark of originality stopped it crossing over into actual greatness. It was nevertheless interesting to watch how the band made music. Everything seemed a bit pre-programmed, with the guitarists strumming the same chord over and over to add a bit of texture).

You might wonder, then, why I bothered buying the band's album Alpinism. Well, they were selling it at a most agreeable price, and I thought maybe if I listened to them on record I would maybe get the point of them more. I cannot say that I have. On a first listen I was a bit wary off enjoying it too much in case my beloved gave me a pimp slap. It seemed a bit better when I listened to some of it in her absence, but still only in an a somewhat-average-electronica kind of way. I may try it on headphones in the future and see what comes of it then.

One thought that occurred to me later was that while they sound a bit like Curve, they also sound a lot like that well-known shoe-gazing outfit t.A.T.u.. Or at least I thought some of their stuff sounds like the production on the t.A.T.u. version of How Soon Is Now?.