Along with the Incidentals the Tape invaders are one of the most promising bands to emerge onto the Norwich scene in the last eighteen months. Whereas the former draw more heavily from one era (78-81 post punk dissonance) the Tape Invaders are less easy to nail down, seemingly drawing inspiration from more historically disparate sources, eg. Joy Division, Echo & the Bunnymen, shoegazing, Radiohead, late 90’s askew Scottish indie, and even that drawn out ole devil called math rock. The result however is an intriguing guitar hybrid alternating between edgy causticity, chiming beauty and the downright introspective. For the most part this works. However a tendency towards the Biffy Clyro compulsion of breaking tunes up in a jarring off-kilter manner doesn’t always serve them well. Frustratingly occasional gaps appear, momentum is lost, and as is this listener who finds himself holding on for something crashingly exciting to kick in, whereas awkward little hollows are dragged out. For the most part the band overcome this apparent clumsiness with a willingness to experiment with a broad raft of ideas and directions. Moreover they triumph through the possession of cracking good tunes!
Tape Invaders, in essence, occupy similar territory to Bloc Party, though where Kele Okereke's vocals writhe with teeth bared and a desperate closed-eye intensity, Tape Invaders too often tend to drift off into a nondescript murmur. I concede though this is being very picky; the gulf in sound-recording quality twixt the two is utterly chasm-like, and I have faith that in time and in the right studio the Tape Invaders can iron out what are, after all, minor glitches, and ultimately garner a substantial following as is suggested by the potential of this material.
This EP is audible and purchasable here: http://myspace.com/tapeinvadersIf you live in Norwich you can also purchase the EP from Soundclash Records (St.Benedict's) and Revolution Recs (near main Castle Mall entrance) It's CD format only, priced at £2.49
