Three men sitting in a row wearing modified welding masks. Single word track names. A Dälek remix. This is the Other Passengers Vacation EP released to promote We Are All Other Passengers, their debut album on Something In Construction, which our own Rich Thane reviewed last year. Although I haven’t heard that album, this EP definitely makes me want to, as Other Passengers blend an enticing mix of post-hardcore and indie rock.

The eponymous Vacation starts with some raucous drumming and hollered vocals that remind me of Bear Vs Shark front-man Marc Paffi. The post-hardcore influence is further intensified by the way guitars are put through either channel to duel with each other, sometimes chugging high up the neck in the left channel while the other is chasing it’s own tail in a furious riff in the right. A slurred yet catchy chorus and unsettling backing “Oooooohhhhhhs”, during the verses make this a worthy single. Gorilla frustrates in a good way, laboured and woozy vocals, siren like guitar and drums that are mixed low before foregrounding create an effective tension. A tension that is never fully resolved in this song or the EP as a whole, despite the appearance of a guitar playing a solo that sounds like metal tearing and shearing against itself. A dreamy atmosphere that has lived in the guitars for parts of this EP is fore-grounded on Wichita (Dälek Deadverse Remix). Undulating electronics and effects that make the vocals and guitar warp are used to good effect, especially when coupled with static laden drums and a thick bass line. Finishing this EP is the lovely Insulin with sombre ringing guitars. It mines a similar melancholy to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs Maps, but is somehow more depressed and coma-like. The guitars harbour a suppressed violence that never really finds catharsis leaving the listener tense and slightly confused.

This band triggers the recognition of other artists such as The Constantines, At The Drive-In and, of course, Fugazi. Yet there’s also a pronounced dark atmosphere that is analogous to British post-punks such as Bauhaus. On this short EP Other Passengers manage to craft an immediate and interesting sound that does a good job of getting me excited for the album that it is mostly taken from.
84%

Links
Other Passengers [myspace] [buy it]