A little bit of history here, Sand River is a two-man, guitar (Si) and drums (Guy) band from Durham. They have been playing together for a few years, gigging around the North-East of Britain. They launched this self-funded and self-released EP which was produced entirely on drums and guitars.
The album started off with The Reprisal (Kid Dust pt.3) with drumming then plucking of the bass or was it electronic guitar? I think is bass. Anyway, I thought this is going to be a heavy metallic kind of album at the strung of 1st note. But, I’m wrong! It was nothing close! It was kind like a twisted blues tune with low tempo throughout the whole album. A drifty, shadowy kind of album.
The song that caught my attention is Goodnight, Goodnight. I really like how the music played through out the track and how the vocal of Si intoxicating the night. (was writing this in middle of the night) Love is another track that worth mentioning. I really like the clapping in this song. It brings a different dimension to the track rather than just the drum and the guitar. It was lively. Si vocal blend with the music effortlessly. However, the album kind of lost me at Kid Dust and the Black Heart (pts. 1 &2). It was a 8.32min track. I guess it might be two songs that combine together given that the track was named such. It was a little bit too long as the whole track is kind of repetitive with it tunes.
Overall, Sand River EP is a 6-tracks EP. At, first listening it won’t be able to grab a hold of you. One may probably found this EP is boring as there is no explosive moment where you will go “woah! That gives me chill”. But, if you give this album a few more chances (which it deserves) it would slowly grows on you. Yet, Sand River still have room to grow. I found that they lack of depth in their vocal and occasionally a bit repetitive in some of the tracks.
Buy or listen their music at bandcamp or visit them at myspace.
