Introducing the Grammatics 13/11/2006
When I was told by the lovely editors of High Voltage that I’d be ‘Introducing the Grammatics’ in this months issue the concept initially appeared difficult to grasp. How do you introduce a band that are so fucking different to the rest of the generic indie melange out there at the moment that at first hearing you could be excused for not ‘getting it’.
I very foolishly fell into this trap myself as a few months ago a good friend of mine told me about the Leeds quartet and after a fleeting visit to their myspace site I left thinking “…” and never thought to return. Then, but a few months later, the same friend asked, nay, pleaded with me to go back there to listen to their new song (and current latest single) ‘Shadow Committee’ stating “it’s simply beautiful”. So I went, I listened, and I hated myself for not realising what I had discarded so nonchalantly the first time around. How can I, a self confessed music lover, not realise that I was listening to something so refreshingly leftfield?
And then I witnessed them live and really realised what these lot are capable of. Easily one of, if not the, highlight of my In The City weekend they glided through their set simply, but not meretriciously, demanding attention from the crowd. You could dissect their sound into many various sections and you’d struggle to find a fault in any of it: The flawless drumming acting as a catalyst to various in-song time signature changes, the bass lines that so carelessly alter from pop to disco to rock and so forth, the cello ‘riffs’ (if you will) that if played on a guitar would sound downright metal but are seamlessly transferred into gorgeous melodic lines that add a depth to each song and then there is him.
Owen Brinley: the future poster boy for girls and sexually confused boys everywhere. He is the dictionary definition of androgynous and he is the proud owner of a simply staggering voice which, when coupled with his exceptional guitar playing, brings the whole sound of the Grammatics together perfectly. I apologise if it appears I’ve used too many superlatives here but in all fairness you shouldn’t even be reading this now, you should be on iTunes downloading ‘Shadow Committee’ and either agreeing, or ferociously disagreeing with my humble words.
