Oxford Brookes may be unaffectionately known as ‘Runners-Up University’ to snooty members of the other place, but you can’t deny it has a great track record in getting good musicians together. The meeting-place for bands as strong as This Town Needs Guns and Fell City girl in recent years, it certainly triumphs over OU, which does a good line in barber-shop quartets, but not much else.
Fell City Girl were a big white hope a couple of years back, but imploded almost as soon as they were signed, amid confused reports of personal tragedy, record-company interference and poor health. Fortunately, The Winchell Riots has emerged out of the mess, with singer-guitarist Phil McMinn and drummer James Pamphlion adding a new bassist and guitar player to the line-up.
At first, ‘Histories’ sounds like a bold departure from the sort of wistful balladeering that made people talk about FCG as the successors to Snow Patrol. Certainly, the snappish, syncopated title track sounds like the band is trying to channel the high-end sonics of Editors through the emotionalism of The Rasmus, and they do it pretty effectively. It’s certainly chart-friendly, but doesn’t play to the singular strengths of the band; there are plenty of groups out there making music in this vein, although few will do it as professionally. There is also a ‘bonus’ track on the EP, in which the tune is remixed by Youthmovies, that doesn’t reflect well on either party. Youthmovies achieve the extraordinary feat of turning McMinn into a crap singer, yowling like a New York bagman in a Martin Amis novel. I’m not sure the Winchell Riots even need the intervention of a more famous group at this stage in their career; the collaboration smacks of cronyism to no artistic purpose: the remix has all the dynamism of an octogenarian three-legged race.
Fortunately, the remaining two tracks are in the top rank. ‘The Man Who Mapped the Oceans’ is as gorgeous as anything I’ve heard in months; it has a tense, poised beauty conjured using fairly standard gambits; syncopated drums, delayed guitar picks and McMinn’s engaging tenor croon. The result is as glacially enchanting as a Sigur Ros masterpiece, and enjoys that aura of borderless freedom.
Finally, we have the hushed, marimba-flavoured ‘I’d Lower You Down’ which starts quirkily (McMinn sounds jaunty but plaintive, a bit like he’s auditioning for Oliver!) but builds expertly with the addition of minimalist drums, e-bowed guitar and a legion of choral enforcements, who sing like an army of ghosts. Incidentally, McMinn’s lyrics are extremely strong throughout the record; the following lines stay with the listener for a long time after the music stops:
I constructed a building in memory of your name,
The President cut the red tape, the whole city was still for the day…
A very strong start for the new band, then. A glance at Myspace suggests that they have equally impressive tracks to back up the ones on this record (‘In Red Square’ is particularly haunting), so there’s good reason to think that The Winchell Riots can go even further than FCG. Though I would give the chummy remixes a wide berth.