Nueva Vulcano
Split
The band composed most famously of Shiner’s frontman has been kicking around for a few years now. The Life and Times have a worldly philosophy, releasing music everywhere and touring overseas since their inception. This split contains three tracks from both The Life and Times and Nueva Vulcano, a Spanish band (you probably guessed this already) from Barcelona. I’m actually partial towards the band I was unfamiliar with, even though I’ll never be able to comprehend Spanish.
A remixed song off The Life and Times’ full-length is the first thing to come off this split. “My Parade” is actually “Muscle Cars,” but the name change signifies a Freeman Moxy remix. No, I cannot tell you what the hell that means. I compared it with the original a few times and the remix is pretty much a waste of your life. The most noticeable changes are some added twinkles and volume distortion. In essence, whoever was behind the wheel on this operation screwed the song over. Someone please tell me why there needs to be a “remix” of a Life and Times song in the first place?
Anyways, the next song is more like what I wanted to hear. It’s a subdued instrumental running about three minutes in length. I have a strong feeling that “The Silent Take” could be perfectly placed in a movie soundtrack as introspective fodder. The atmosphere is spread out and the mood settling. Typical of The Life and Times material, it’s also very bittersweet in retrospective.
Nueva Vulcano brings some much needed focus back into my attention span. Out of the gates, they sound like early Appleseed Cast, but more disjointed. The riffs are bright and vocal melodies uplifting, but in terms of recording quality it’s lacking. “Palo Rosa” has one of those bombastic build-ups or what I like to call “cool parts” when I’m not writing a review. If Nueva Vulcano writes more songs like the previous one, that are complete rather than unfinished thoughts, I’m all for it.
This split is out now on a Spanish record label, and if you’re looking for it you can purchase it online. I know for a fact that The Life and Times’ official store has all versions in stock. In any case, it’s worth checking out, at least for a couple songs.