Home /ReviewsAlbums
Wintermute: Fun With Wizard Stencils EP
I own this:
2 users / add your name
While it’d be wrong to suggest that Foals are alone in being responsible for the spread of bands across the UK that play their guitars in… that… fractured and dancey… fashion all of the time, there’s no doubt that the success of their album Antidotes has rather opened the floodgates. Wintermute, a four-piece from Leeds, echo the Oxford quintet’s staccato stylings, adding little to a tried-and-tested formula.
That doesn’t mean Fun With Wizard Stencils is without its merits, though, as one man’s Foals is surely another’s Futureheads, and so it proves as the band also do a good job of channelling the poppier end of the Sunderland quartet’s spectrum via six tracks of punchy, melodically sound indie-rock that’s perfectly in tune with the Here and Now. Vocals are delivered with a yelped desperation, as if that little red light indicating the tape’s rolling is also a button to end the world with. Six seconds from now. Sing like you mean it, son.
‘Dead Or Not He Was Wearing Sunglasses’ is the most ambitious of these six tracks, all stop-start of arrangement and impassioned of performance; offerings elsewhere may demonstrate greater technical prowess – the following ‘Spanish Girls’ for example, which features fingers-on-fret work to tick the boxes of math-rock acolytes – but this standout rings with an instant-fix accessibility that its surrounding pieces struggle to deliver. ‘Emerald Hill Zone Act 2’ – yes, a reference to Sonic The Hedgehog, like there aren’t enough of those in vaguely post-whatever music nowadays – is too whiney to translate as endearing, and ‘Jambon! Jambon!’ brings proceedings to a close with little left in the tank to drive the band’s point home.
And the point of the band is… To mirror what their target audience is well accustomed to and exploit the subsequent possibilities and opportunities. There’s no shame in playing second-fiddle in a style not at all of your own making, for now, as days are early for Wintermute. But come their album proper, let’s home they’re showcasing a voice of their own rather than mimicking their influences quite so accurately.
-
great band
i haven't heard the ep so i really can't comment about it, but live they're great :D
-
I agree they're very very good live
a great intensity. They nearly, but not quite stole the show from twilight sad and youthmovies the last time I saw them. I can imagine it losing something when recorded but I'm still a fan and reckon i'll be buying this cd.
-
-
saw them live recently
and i was gobsmacked how much of a rip-off some of their songs were. they were still pretty decent, but a few were just daylight robbery pure and simple.
-
Don't much like this band
ok live sometimes.
-
Great EP
this.
-
-
AWESOME BAND IN EVERY WAY!
I don't quite get the 6/10 for this, mainly due to just how brilliantly the songs are constructed etc. Especially considering some of the shite that gets 8 or 9 out of ten on here just for being 'different' when there really are no 'songs' as such. Just fun noises that are instantly forgettable.
I can see how someone may say mmm foals ever so slightly but the songs souns nothing like them in the slightest.
Don't let the mark put you off. I'd personally give it at least 8/10. Awesome.
I'll shut up now.
-
the foals thinkg is a little off the mark
more minus the bear-y
-
definately
i hate the foals comparison just because there is a bit of open to closed hi-hat action.
they sound like the Futureheads covering Minus the Bear in my opinion.
-
..
I second pretty much all these comments! Great band - not much like Foals at all.
-
6/10?
I'm sorry but this ep is fucking brilliant. I got a promo for it and it hasnt left my cd player for about 2 weeks.
8/10
-
This release is now out 04/08/08
a new tour will be announced soon as well as a few launch events.
wintermute are the fucking butt rock dudes!
wooooop paaaaa paaayyy
love em
-
Canny wait to buy this>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Wintermute and Pulled Apart by Horses are my two favourite bands at the moment. Great shit.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
The EP is
fucking brilliant, and having seen the band progress over the last couple of years, I can honestly say that Foals did not 'open the gates' for them. It really pisses me off when bands who have been doing something for years get compared to a hyped bad, who aren't doing 'math-pop' nearly half as classily as these boys. but such is the way of the industry these days. you have to see them live, these guys are truly awesome, and their originality and songwriting never ceases to amaze me. keep it up mutes x
-
good band
lovely people.
big fans of warhammer too
-
Do you not think that...
...referencing a band like Foals is productive, given 99% of people reading this will have heard of them, and chances are that most of that 99% won't have previously heard Wintermute? Thus some may think: Right, I like Foals, I'll give this a chance. Far better than saying: Wintermute are the Leeds take on Minus The Bear doing US Maple, or something. Yes? Yes. This is why critics of the comparison on these comments are not professional music reviewers, and this writer is.
No offence intended to anyone supporting the band - I really like them to - but those with a very narrow view of this type of music need to understand that bands like Foals, and their successes, have made bands like Wintermute a lot more palatable for kids who last year were listening to rage Against The Machine and Korn.
-
are you living in 1999?
i don't know anyone who has seriously listened to Korn or Rage Against the Machine in the last 6 or 7 years.
it's all well and good comparing a small band to a big band, but if they sound nothing alike then it's a pretty void comment, no?
-
You REALLY don't hear any similarities?
OK then, say they're a bit like Tired Irie instead.
-
-
-
-
Fair point Mike_Diver
But still a harsh and perhaps a little naive review. Wintermute have been playing this style of music way before Foals came to light, so to suggest they're ripping them off is wrong and potentially damaging. For all the kids who read this and go 'ooohh I like Foals I'll listen to this' there will be a similar number of indier and holier than thou types who will go 'God I hate Foals and all their hype, a band ripping them off must be shit!' and stay well clear.
I honestly see where the comparison comes from, but don't particularly agree with it - definitely more Futureheads/MTB.
Also that last bit: 'the point of the band is… To mirror what their target audience is well accustomed to and exploit the subsequent possibilities and opportunities'. Sorry but thats just crap! The amount of absolute tripe that gets 8/10 on here just because its slightly different, but still absolute rubbish, is astounding. Just because you're different does not make you good, by the same token, just because you're not groundbreaking does not make you bad! The part about 'exploiting ...opportunities' is way off the mark, as you'd know if you knew anything about the lads!
Still, I can't comment on the ep, not heard it yet, but I am very interested in doing so. Previous recordings have been a big letdown and definitely not a true representation of how impressive these guys are live. Thats my 2 cents.
-
WTF?
"And the point of the band is… To mirror what their target audience is well accustomed to and exploit the subsequent possibilities and opportunities." - Only just noticed this part. Where the hell do you get off saying that man? What is your purpose in life mate? Writing on here to try and get kudos to stick above your bedroom door for girls to see when they come back pissed so you win them over?
Wintermute have been about for around 4 years. They are just a band who love what they do.
Hoorah mutes.
-
-
longtime reader first time commenter....
hmm, I felt compelled to reply to this review, as i felt it was quite off the mark. I too have got my hands on a copy of this EP and really can't hear what the reviewers talking about. The quality of the tracks, the structure, the recording really do deserve a lot more than what many would say is a lazy comparison to foals.
I've just had a lok at the reviewers other contributions to DiS and it seems a bit strange to send someone albums like the roots and sonny j then something like Wintermute that judging by his writing in the other 2 reviews would be quite far removed from his general comfort zone.
The Foals comparison really concludes my views.
-
Ok ok....
If i search the deepest corner of my brain i can see why the reviewer could have chosen foals as a comparison.
However, my beef is that he chose that as the reason to knock the mark down which is unfair in my opinion.
As the review goes on you can tell he's not even listening to the songs properly anymore.
in my humble opinion, 'Jambon Jambon' is the best track they have ever
written.Dammit im still talking!!!
-
Fair point Kudra!
I guess are concerns are a larger wordcount then this review by now anyway. Ha.
-
-
judging by the comments...
this is definitely causing a stir, and arguments can only surely be good publicity for them? Hope so. As for the recordings, I agree their past ones have not done them jusice at all but James Kenosha's done a brilliant job (This et al, Grammatics, Sky Larkin) and it honestly is awesome. Making comparisons is all well and good, but it's unfair for reviewers to claim they are a tribute/ripping off/paying homage to etc etc because it's just totally negative without having done the background.
nuff said.-
My favourite song
is Danny Likes Scene Girls...but then I am biased as I am said Danny.
-
-
A very very...
...very good EP. Some great songwriting, well performed songs, by a tight as hell band. Yes, i'm biased as i work with the band, but then why would anyone work with a band who they didn't think were really really good?!
The Foals comment, as a comparison, is fair enough, and will get people interested as Mike says. I feel the writer has gone too far in suggesting that they're copyists/cashing in on them though. As someone else has said, Minus The Bear and Futureheads would be a more accurate comparison, people have heard bits of At The Drive-In there as well. But the point is, they've not copied - they've brought a hell of a lot to the table in terms of originality, songwriting, musicianship and passion. Yes, they listen to music and get influenced by it like all bands do. Ripping anyone off? No way. They're just doing something they love, and doing it well.
I hope people give them a listen, they've worked hard to write this EP so go and give it a listen and judge for yourselves!
-
I haven't heard the CD in question
But I think it is very important to be clear that Wintermute are far better than Foals will ever be. Fact.
-
this EP...
...rules! the production on it is totally fat and the energy is fully driving. As a whole its well balanced, the songs are cleverly structured and the lyrics impassioned. The end of jambon brings me up in shivers and sets my heart racing. it makes me feel well excited!
Personally I can't see any need for such a soppy review, for although yes it is pretty mathy, there's nothing try hard about it. Sure it sounds a bit like minus the bear/foals/at the drive-in and there's nothing wrong with that.
So if people are going to insist on talking about them... what's everyone's problem with foals? they're album has got some right tunes! ya miserable gits!
But no wintermute certainly don't rip foals off, to be fair they sounded kinda like foals before foals did. Foals used to sound totally different, then they actually said we want to make this sort of disco guitar pop stuff and a month later they were, a year they later they were huge, and the year after that they entered that weird world were normal people have heard of you.
Personally I must have seen Wintermute play 20 odd times and I just view them as punk rock.
-
on second thoughts
listening to it now and it doesn't even sound anything like foals
-
-
-
-
tight..
tres tres tight live. And what I've heard of the EP is amazing, thanks in part to the ace production which kinda let the single down I think. I don't really see the Foals comparison really, Wintermute are more jagged, less disco beat ad infinitum
-
rubbish
I haven't heard the Foals so I don't know about the comparison. However, I do know that Wintermute are amazing live and their EP lives in my stereo.
They are passionate, talented, creative and original and their songs make me want to dance! I always leave their gigs feeling elated and proud to live in a city that has produced a band that are not only awesome musically but are also thoroughly nice guys!
Long live Wintermute!!! -
Picked up the ep at the launch
finally a recording that does them justice. Great songs, great choruses, good dancey beats. Great Ep.
Really doesn't sound anything like Foals at all.
Comments
Post a new comment on this review