MySpace Trawl – Troubles

There are lots of proverbs that plague everyday conversation. Some are utter crap and should be taken with a pinch of salt. See what we did there? We just used one to prove that sometimes we do know what we are talking about and don’t use Wikipedia to research everything. It’s not even a full moon!

But there is one proverb which, when it comes to music, always comes into effect at some point. This being “nothing lasts forever”. In the case of bands, the time always comes when they call it a day. Sadly the Rolling Stones haven’t quite reached this point, but we hope it'll come before Mick Jagger becomes one huge wrinkled mass. Unfortunately, some bands call it a day too early and this happened to Hope of the States. But now a few members of the band have reunited with a brand new act called Troubles, and we quite like it.

For anyone who was a fan of Hope of the States, this new act that has spawned from their ashes resembles hardly anything once achieved with the brilliant albums The Lost Riots and Left. It was quite hard to perfectly place Hope of the States in one genre. They weren’t quite post-rock or indie. Their setup was the usual bog-standard one with drums, keyboards, guitar and a bass. But remember that there was a violinist included in their line-up, it certainly gave them a unique vibe which sadly never cottoned on.

It wasn’t even the music that was solidly put out. A lot of care and concentration was put into how the album and single artwork would look. The videos were more then just the band posing in a room and miming to a backing track. The first Hope of the States single – Black Dollar Bills, came in a stitched-up cloth bag which resulted in much stress and anger whilst we delicately tried to open it without ripping the fine handy work put in to it.

So what has changed, then?

In our deluded opinion, Troubles don’t have such a big and intense sound. The sometimes haunting guitar riffs have disappeared from what Hope of the States brought us. It’s almost like they went through a massive filtration system to ween out the weak spots and leave us with a gleaming finished product.

The music is much moodier and, with no vocals at all, you would be forgiven for thinking this was from a band whose vocalist who was extremely unique. To give you an idea of what it now sounds like, we can only give you the picture of drunken old men sitting in an Eastern European pub waiting to fight. Put this on in the background and it fits in perfectly. With slight elements of post-rock and orchestral sounds creeping in, its dark and eerie sound grasps you immediately.

Interestingly, the bands influences are nothing directly connected to music. They include: 

“Polish saints from the mid to late fifteenth century, Wire taps from McCarthy era paranoia nights, Circuit boards sparking with barely concealed glee, Marie Curie, HMS Victory's rigging on a stormy morning, The sin and dilapidation of early twentieth century Churches, Alcoholic disasters. Tomas Minton.”

Erm… we are confused as you probably are. Polish saints? What’s all that about? Troubles are more a band to be listened to rather then written about, so we’ll stop here. Four tracks of atmospheric bliss await you. Listen away! 

Read more:

Troubles MySpace Page