Music To Drive Tanks To - Music To Drive Tanks To (self-release)

'Granite Eyes Starts' proceedings with an extremely synth based thudding beat, best served from The Pet Shop Boys, with unmistakably british vocals which seem to have been cast from a different room, meeting the drum-loops and astral sounds in mid air. Tracks such as 'Chandelier' and 'Love Is...' impart a more minimal and yet scenic effort, lyrics such as “destroying things I used to adore” creating a darker edge, rising with the chorus to peal the unfinished line “Love is...”. Produced to offer a clipped and bracing backbeat pushing through the soft and pensive lyrics.

This is similar with 'Static', a more ambient track enveloping the odd sharp sound, like feedback or nails on a blackboard. Though slow, the pace is driving, giving the sense of pavements being pounded, either on foot or with wheels. Another gem can be found in 'Actress', opening with a stark difference in its simplistic and genuine piano riff, a with a fresher, more open vocal sound, there is a touch of the post Take That attempts of Gary Barlow, with a backing chorus which gives the feeling of being lighter than air. the best this album has to offer. (not as bad as that analogy makes it sound!)

In both 'Hollow' and 'Heart Of The Peripheral', a trickier hip-hop beat is cultivated, with breaks and loops which make you move, despite the slow and sombre lyrics arching over the top. with 'Heart Of The Peripheral', breaking into the chorus the track takes an odd turn into a 90s ballad, before moving back into the hip-hop circle, whilst hollow offers a more sturdy elemental undertone, which could find a welcome home in a grimy Techno club.

Trickling in to the last track, 'The More We See', through a familiar drum-loop and the choice reverberation hitting you like an echo, this is the most difficult track to gauge. Seeming out of place as the last track on the album, summing their efforts up as a sombre and pensive group, 'The More We See' takes a while to get to the meatier part of the track, before all too soon the track is over.

With the odd element of pounding darkness held within its folds, the one constant seems to be the element of space-like depth and the sombre, introverted lyrics. this forms the basis of MTDTT’s EP, with moments of uptempo beauty peeking through. Whilst holding your attention for the duration, there is a sense you are waiting for the drop, for something to kick in. Sadly these tracks hold no resonance after they have ended, save perhaps for 'Actress', which strips away the programming and synth, giving us the raw talent underneath. Perhaps something to think about for the future.