CAMPAG VELOCET / MUST*RD
Warwick University
Must*rd look a little like Jonathan Fire*Eater (a similarly starred band you will note). All sharp suits and hey! mustard shirts. Musically they slot quite well into the Rialto/Gene end of things which should ensure their place in the bedrooms of millions (well thousands) of disaffected young things. Singer Nathan does a nice line in overwrought histrionics and sounds not unlike the guy from Whipping Boy (although not quite as dour). The songs are well crafted and seem memorable enough to ensure commercial success. Anyway, my Manics and Radiohead fan friend likes them, which can’t be bad.
Campag Velocet on the other hand play it very cool. They are surly, stroppy and arrogant which I guess is part of their supposed charm. Personally I can’t see it - they sound over-indulgent, wanting badly to emulate Spiritualized’s sonic layering and ending up with a stultifying jazz-rock mutant hybrid (i.e. not very good). At times they sound like a stoned Stone Roses or a free falling Rolling Stones, but are not as good as either of these two scenarios might suggest. They appear to be suffering from the too-much-hype-not-enough-talent syndrome, a situation made most clear when for the first five seconds of the song that caused all the fuss you kind of understand why but then it drifts hazily away in to more of the same.
On paper at least, Campag Velocet are an interesting proposition; an amalgamation of chemical beats, swaggering rock arrogance, fucked-up pre-millenial rhymes and rhythms. Unfortunately live they do not carry it off, despite their obvious confidence. It remains to be seen whether the music-buying public will take them as gratefully to their collective bosom as the music press seem to have done.
