Driving on City Sidewalks – Where Angels Crowd to Listen EP

Driving on City Sidewalks - Where Angels Crowd to Listen EP

The debut EP from Barry Mielke and Darryl Silvestri is quite an impressive offering. Sure, Where Angels Crowd To Listen can be derivative and it does falter in one or two moments, but overall Driving on City Sidewalks construct some well composed and emotionally charged music.

The song that introduces the audience to what DOCS has to offer has a good build up, and even though “To Finish the Race” has a one-track mind it takes just the right cues from some of Explosions in the Sky’s best. The title track opens beautifully and tells a very compelling story about the power of music. Unfortunately, they decide to bring in some uneccesary screaming into the mix when the song explodes that almost takes away from the song completely, if not for the moving composition of the music. Not changing up the pace much comes “Tear, Repair”, only this time it’s an acoustic number with vocals. Again, the band shows that they can write some really pretty music and lead singer Darryl Silvestry shows a wider vocal range here.

The last two songs are instrumentals and though they are somewhat derivative of bands like Explosions in the Sky or even Mogwai, Silvestri and his partner Barry Mielke successfully use effects and their respective instruments to compose some compelling and heartfelt instrumentals. Where they really shine is in their most climactic and volumounus moments. Driving on City Sidewalks have put together an impressive little EP that should make fans of post-rock and ambient music, dare I say, “crowd to listen”.