The Motor Tapes
‘The Motor Tapes’

The distance covered across the songs of this CD is vast and impressive. We start in the Dandy Warhol’s brightly-lit avenue, then cross the street to the suburbs of the Strokes’ angular chug, take a detour through the cluburbs of electro-pop and end up in a slo-mo dash
across the desolate fields of rock cinerama.

Yet, by the CD’s end there is a sense that the band haven’t yet arrived where they had intended. Each individual track is distinct and offers undeniable potential but the tracks have less impact when listened to in sequence as they are missing a through-line of band identity.

Essentially, the band seem to be lost in the murky forest of their own record collections with a wayward compass and an MC Escher-drawn map for
guidance. This is no bad thing – wrong turns and leaps of faith can often produce exciting and unexpected results and there are moments of
pure fun listening to them trying to make sense of it all. They just need to arrive.

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By Rich

NB This is a 2012 recording and the band have indeed moved on since then, see review here