Overthrow - So Much Power So Little Time

Overthrow – So Much Power So Little Time

www.myspace.com/overthrowrock

Their first EP, Withdrawal of Reason, had some great songs on it but wasn’t the best recording this album has better songs and a much higher sound quality. The band play a mix of reggae, ska and rock and you can hear influences from the Police and RX Bandits throughout, sounds good so far…

The opening track ‘Take Me Away’ has some great overtones of RX Bandits and brilliant sing-a-long moments culminating in a really good crescendo before the final chorus. The lyrics focus on a fear of facing up to reality and the song is littered with excellent lines like “So I guess I’ll return to bed might help my head, because facing reality is what I dread”. It’s a great opening track with a good pace to it and sets the tone for the album brilliantly.

The second track ‘Ode to the Innocent’ takes a much more political stance and is a critique of the use of military force in countries that really need aid and support rather than an occupying military force. It’s a noble cause and the song does it justice, intricate guitar parts and a strong ska influence make it a really well developed song with some excellent drum fills really packing it out and a massive chance to rock out at the end of the song. Again there are brilliant sing-a-long moments with brilliant harmonies which seem to be a recurring theme on the EP.

‘Dear Miss Ryan’ is the pinnacle of all the Reggae influences on the EP, great bass line, kick ass lead guitar and loads of space to showcase the vocals. The subtle changes in tempo really get you into the song and add tonnes of emotion. The guitar solo is reminiscent of Sublime and the recording of the vocals show a great improvement in the quality of the recordings.

The other tracks on the album showcase more of the same; complex rhythms rising and falling to pull you up and down throughout the album, excellent melodies to get you singing along, infections riffs which stay with you for days, lyrics which make you think and carry poetic notions – my favourite from ‘Talk of the Town’ “I will not settle for the black and white over the option of full spectral light”, bass lines and grooves to get you dancing, excellent build-ups to grab you before rock out. This is an EP packed with talent and oozing quality. Check out Roll of the Dice on the MySpace it’s a brilliant last track. www.myspace.com/overthrowrock

Overthrow are a four piece Ska Punk band from Guildford, Surrey, and are playing loads of gigs across the south of England go check em out.

You can buy So Much Power So Little Time from their site for just £3!!!!!! They also have some delicious looking T-shirts for sale. http://www.overthrowmerch.bigcartel.com/

9/10

Fresh Kicks

Just got a new pair of shoes through in the mail today. Having been completely devoted to Nike trainers for the last 2 years I decided it was time to give some others a try.

These are Adidas Forum Lo's and they were on sale on the Size website for only 30 quid! All leather in Black Pink and White. The contrast in them is what drew me in at first because I had seen the LA lakers version in the store but wasn't sure even though Purple is a sick colour. These are much nicer though and the insteps fatness looks killer.

The trainers were 25 years old last year and they were re-released to celebrate. FRESH!

Diplo - Decent Work For Decent Pay

Diplo has released a load of stuff since his first album Florida in 2004. This album is a selection of some of that work and includes remixes of M.I.A, Bloc Party, Black Lips and Caude Von Stroke, a massive range of artists most of them getting the bailie funk treatment from Diplo. There's a new Diplo tune on there as well.

The first 5 tracks are all pretty kick ass and the Kano tune 'Reload it' is a testament to Diplo's producing skills and really shows of Kanos MCing skillz and yeh "that 16 was mean and he knows it". This is the only grime/hiphop tune on the album and the majority of the others sound like Diplo tunes: they all have that brazilian flex.

The remix of 'Put that pussy on me' by Spank Rock has loads of big beat sounds, reminisciant of the one and only Fat Boyslim which is definately a good thing. The Solta O Frango mix is quite similar but with much more bailie funk influence. Its a awesome party tune even if i have fuck all idea what is being said it got me dancing. The 'Heater' mix is a classic club tune as well and takes me back to Uni and being out in Bristol.

There are a few tunes on here that i really dont like. 'smash a kangaroo' is one it just lacks the melodies that make some of the other tunes on the album real joys to listen to and it lacks development, it sounds pretty boring to be honest. Some of the other tunes which I'm not a fan of are the remixes of 'Where is home' by Bloc Party and 'lets make love...' by CSS. It obviously doesnt help that i dont like these songs in the first place. In fact the vocals are the things that have put me off the tunes. REgardless the tunes are not my cup of tea.

The album finishes with one of my anthems from second year at uni 'young folks' by Peter Bjorn & John. Diplo did a great job on this remix and it builds up beautifully towards the end of the tune. Some times it has a real timbaland feel to it! Which, surprisingly, doesn't ruin the song.

Overall the album is a great snapshot of Diplo's work and does have some classic club tunes. Its pretty hard to get away from tunes like Paper Planes, Solta O Frango and The Whistler and these remixes of them are all top notch. Just a shame he included some of the other tunes which are just dull, they could have their place in sets though and its just up to DJs to make their own mind up if they want to use them.

7/10

ear me now

By far and away one of the most important things for long journeys are Mp3 players and laptops. The most important acompanyment for which are of course headphones.

I recently bought a pair of Bose in-ear headphones (rrp £77.31) and they have not let me down. In the past I have used Sharp, Sennheiser and Sony headphones but they all either broke, were too tinny or just sounded crap.

The choice to buy these was based mainly around my mates giving great feedback on the over-the-head versions but they were a bit out of my price range! These however are a great alternative to splashing loads of cash. Shure make a pair that i have been told can rival the Bose headphones but I haven't had a chance to get my hands on any.

The bass in outstanding, normally a problem with the in-ear headphones, and they come with a variety of 3 rubber ear pieces to suit any ear. After about two hours they do get a tad uncomfortable and i definitely wouldn't use them full whack for that long just coz the bass is that good on them. Obviously this could be a problem as they don't have any noise canceling technology so you might be tempted to let the bass-lines pummel you ear drums to drown out the train or tube.

The sound on live tracks is incredible and when listening to electronica you can really hear all the tiny additions that the producers have made to the tunes that you just wouldn't pick up on a normal pair of headphones. Listening to Bjork on these the other day was a real treat.

Been using them for about 4 months now they havent shown any sign of damage or wire damage which is a good. These are the best headphones i have owned by a long way I would suggest them to anyone. The Headphones also come with a free two year warranty!

9/10

Tropic Thunder

So as I'm unemployed i have the luxury of watching a lot of TV and spending a fair bit of time on the Internet. As a result I was aware that Stephen Fry was to appear on the 1st episode of Friday Night with Jonathon Woss since his colossus cock up, I'm following Fry on Twitter.

I've always been a fan of Stephen Fry, initially for his roles in Blackadder but also because he is a G on QI and basically a national treasure, and decided to catch up with the Wossy show on Monday to see what went down (thank you iPLayer!!!). The other guests were Lee Evans who can make funny faces but in my opinion kinda sucks as a comedian and Tom Cruise who is NOT a comedian, or so i thought. One of the first things that Fry was to say was the incredible performance from Cruise in 'Tropic Thunder' as Les Grossman.

Hmmmmm I had my doubts about 'Tropic Thunder' as 'just another Ben Stiller movie' (nice but stupid person gets into hillarious scrapes and comes good in the end) and definitely had my doubts about the clip that they showed on Wossy's show of Grossman (cruise) dancing to Flowrider which out of context looked about as funny as a piece of A4 paper.

Later in the Day another interview with someone from Valkyrie, Kevin McNally this time on possibly the most ludicrous thing i have ever witnessed - the Alan Titchmarsh Show (pensioners swooning is all i expect at this point) don't ask why i was watching. Obviously because Titchmarsh really dreamt of Cruise coming on his show most of the incredibly short interview was about Cruise, obviously witnessing these messages from god that i should plan my evening around staying in and watching Tom Cruise or people talking about Tom Cruise I decided i would give 'Tropic Thunder' a go.

Less Grossman is possibly the best character in the entire film and Cruise delivers it perfectly. His Don't Fuck With Me attitude and the torrent of swearing that he releases is a great excuse to laugh out loud and is a very chalky chalk to the nice but stupid cheese of Tugg Speedman (Stiller). Stillers does have one scene which made me crack up tho involving a primate but don't want to spoil it for you.

The movie is littered with stars and they all do a fairly good job. Robert Downy Jr is brilliant as Kirk Lazarus but I would have liked to see his character and Alpa Chino (Brandon T Jackson) kick off a bit more at some point.

Cruise and McConaguhey carry the story from outside the jungle nicely and have a couple of funny interactions.

In the jungle the interaction between Cody (Danny McBride from Pineapple Express) and Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte) is definitely worth a watch, in all of McBrides films he carries of his roles excellently, and the performance from Jay Burrel is great.

Jack Black however didn't really get going till right at the end of the film and I guess his part was just a bit shoddy. He did what he could with what he was given.

Overall, I was actually surprised to find it a film which made me laugh a lot. I really was expecting 'just another Ben Stiller movie' but then again whenever i do expect that I thank god its not 'just another Adam Sandler movie'. Stillers production is definitely worth a watch and although there are lots of similarities in his character to Zoolander it still works. The other cast members do him proud and its definitely worth a watch.

6/10