It’s the usual story. I woke up this morning and wasn’t dead so I decided to write something about Eamon The Destroyer’s EP “Alternate Piranhas” which, it would seem, contains different versions of song from his previous album “We’ll Be Piranhas”. A remix is, after all, just what the world needs now…
Released on an Edinburgh label that specialises in releasing music for people who (probably) wear Christmas sweaters all year round, I wasn’t expecting much and, as I am 174.34% unfamiliar with the original album, it seemed appropriate to sharpen my reviewer’s knife and get surgical. To my surprise, there was actual value to be found in these five songs. Don’t get me wrong, in sonic terms these five songs are lo-fi to the point of making a style statement and are not so much derivative as purloined yet, in that continuity averse murk, hides an interesting, and distinctly darker, intent as if anger and frustration had been taken to the overdose level and subsequently diluted into music.
Eamon the Destroyer revels in the downbeat and with his words, though often indistinct and often lost in the shadows of reflective thought, do indeed have both a point and a purpose. The supporting music – it seems almost insulting to call them tunes – reeks of old movie soundtrack cues recycled from a charity shop and then abused by the looped overlords of modern technology yet, when all is said and turned into tomato soup, everything here gels into something that might even be called compelling.
Once again, I am forced to like something that I didn’t want to like. “Alternate Piranhas” certainly deserves to be heard and, even if it does not fit into the mainstream category, there is much to be enjoyed by those who like to sprinkle dystopia on their cornflakes.
Available from Bandcamp.