Drawn From Bees - FearNot The Footsteps Of TheDeparted

Wed 26th May, 2010 in Music Reviews

Theirs is a name that is vaguely familiar to many, and with good reason. Although Fear Not The Footsteps Of The Departed is the band’s first full-length endeavour, the ambitious lads have been extremely busy. Since forming early in 2008, Drawn From Bees has independently written and recorded four shorter offerings on their own label Bonefinger Records. One track most would be familiar with, Long Tooth Setting Sun, has received a thorough spinning on Triple J.

The album opens with a four-part vocal harmony faintly backed by frontman Dan James’s loose acoustic strums; seconds later the rhythm sections joins along with fuzzy guitar, and the radio friendly groove of Run Away rocks into gear. Always The Last follows with what could easily become an album highlight thanks to Matt Wadmaier’s minimal but perfectly places drums and Raven Jones’ driving, psychedelic guitar bridge.

A scattering of what seem to be segue-tracks I’m Running, My Sweet Devil , Undertakers and Why Bother reiterate the band’s ‘followers of nothing and no-one’ ethos. The latter two, barely breaching two minutes in length, usher the album to a gorgeous close; while the former two appear early on and, as lovely as they are, seem more like envisioned choruses that were never further developed.

From the outset, it’s clear Drawn From Bees takes great pride in the writing of lyrics and the marrying of musical emotion. For an album that seems to deal more in the negative issues and aspects of relationships, society and self assessment, Fear Not… maintains an overall upliftingness that can only be attributed to skill of composition and more obviously, the jewel in the Drawn From Bees crown, the vocal abilities of all four memebers including bassist Stew Riddle. The East Wood Fox is one such down-tempo sway, while the suggestively titled Awful Mess starts all pensive and down before rising and rocking out.

The radio-destined Stand Against The Storm begins with a lonely, rhythmic basketball-in-a-hall drum beat before the vocal overlay. The highlight of the track (apart from the consistently poignant lyrics, which is the highlight of every track) is the almost-spoken breakdown with the kind of desperation reminiscent of Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock. Lights On, Too Long and Caves take a foggy, meandering midnight walk, with the latter finally finding the motivation to run. This Body is a gorgeous acoustic lesson in tasteful vocal teamwork reiterated by the maturity of All The World’s A Stage.

Few bands, I feel, ever really earn and deserve the complimentary pigeon-hole of ‘art-rockers’. Luckily for them, this Brisbane based four piece do. Fear Not The Footsteps Of The Departed is a brave indie-rock release from a band with clear-cut vision. Here’s to hoping that this debut album is a sturdy platform from which Drawn From Bees finds itself widely exported – and merely the foundations of a glorious body of work to come.