Aleks and The Ramps @ RoxanneParlour, Melbourne (10/07/09)

Tue 14th Jul, 2009 in Gig Reviews

My mother always told me if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. With that in mind it is with a heavy heart that I sit down to write this review. I really wanted to like this band. I really did.

After the release of their sophomore album Midnight Believers Aleks and The Ramps have become one of Melbourne’s most talked about bands. Their idiosyncratic brand of bombastic, quirky pop has drawn comparisons to Architecture in Helsinki and has garnered rave reviews from radio stations and street rags all over the country. As I said before I really wanted to like this band. But they just wouldn’t let me. Despite fantastic support from a slew of different acts Aleks and The Ramps’ set at Roxanne on Friday night was one of the most frustrating I’ve ever watched.

Let’s concentrate on the good stuff though. Slo-Mo Speedboat, the ambient brain child of Jamie from previously mentioned Architecture in Helsinki was nothing short of spectacular. I don’t really know how to describe this guy’s music. When I first walked in I thought I was in a rain forest. There were bird calls, rain sounds and marimbas, gently pressed against somnolent synth chords. It sounded like Brian Eno at his best, and that’s pretty much as good as it gets. The set slowly evolved, incorporating drumbeats, looped guitar lines and the only amped up African thumb piano this side of Senegal. The hooky, pop sensibilities of AIH are obvious in his work, but instead of the instantaneous rush that that band aims for, Slo-Mo Speedboat creates a slow burning, ethereal experience. It says a lot that that an act with no singing and very little rhythm kept an entire room silent for a whole hour. It was amazing. I’ve been scouring the internet looking for his stuff and have turned up empty handed. It’s crazy that an act this good can not have anything out. Where can I get more of him??

Up next was a very young pianist from the Apple Isle named Peter Escott. Rainy day, vaguely jazzy piano chords are well complemented by his wistful, rather flat vocal delivery in what was a middlingly pleasant half hour. He’s young, he’s talented, I’m sure we’ll be hearing from him soon.

After a frankly awful set by Canadian imports Mixylodian the show was well and truly stolen by local wonderkids The Parking Lot Experiments. With an extended lineup featuring members of Rat vs. Possum and Milk Teddy, this band encapsulates all the good things about being young. The guitars shimmer, the bass jerks and the drums pound with an energy that is bordering on ADD. Every last one of them wails, handclaps and gyrates with a wide eyed wonder that only someone under twenty one possesses. Frontman Dave Connor’s voice jumps and warbles like Daniel Johnston (minus the depression) as he sings about girlfriends and comfy beds. It’s fun, warm and very um… real music. According to their Myspace they’re still unsigned, but not for long, they are way too good. Watch this space.

Aleks and The Ramps should have been good. Since his first solo EP in 2005, it has been obvious that Aleks Bryant is a talented musician. His voice has a wonderful timbre, a classic baritone in the vein of Leonard Cohen or Stephen Merritt. Furthermore his use of banjo as the basis of his compositions is both original and at times captivating, for example in standout track Hey Owl.

The problem is The Ramps. They just don’t really add anything. In fact they just get in the way. Songs which could have been brilliant in the right hands become cluttered, self indulgent messes. Like Destroy The Universe With Jazz Hands – beginning with a beautiful five part harmony and a simple bouncy guitar line, the song slowly descends into an incongruous, almost prog noise breakdown. It just didn’t fit. Every song seemed to follow the same pattern. Great opening, average middle and a graceless bombastic conclusion. They seemed like they couldn’t help themselves.

Unlike the album, which utilises smooth production to mask their musical blemishes, The Ramps do not stand up in a live setting. The harmonies are flat, the drumming’s out and quite what Janita Foley does in the band is quite beyond me. The conclusion I drew was more Aleks, less Ramps.

In a way Aleks and The Ramps sum up a worrying trend in indie pop music in general. They are one of those saccharine, cutesy collective groups dressed in shiny clothes who rely more on ‘quirky’ instrumentation and lots of ‘la la las’ to mask the fact that their songs are really not that good. Their Myspace site lists ‘kitty wiskers, Swiss cheese and snoring duck’ as instruments. Live they all play recorders and then throw them away ‘spontaneously’. Despite a few flashes of brilliance, like Afro-pop gem Antique Limb, there is only one word to describe their music; pretentious.