50Hz are a band I've managed to totally avoid hearing about, but my research suggests their one pre-existing claim to fame is that their track '
Panic Attack' was heavily featured on Ewan McGregor's series The Long Way Round – apparently 7 other 50Hz tracks also featured, but that one in particular was pretty much the shows 'theme'. Now that's not a
great claim to fame is it? Certainly not worth the number of Google hits at any rate. Lets just breeze past that and take this album on it's merits then, shall we?
Here Goes Everything is a full length (11 track) debut album, which includes the aforementioned
Panic Attack as a single EP release. The general 'feel' of this album is a mixture of fairly 'by the numbers' indie rock sprinkled with some mellow chill-out tracks in a similar vein. It's certainly not ground breaking, but several times my ears did pick up and I had to concede that as generic as the band's sound is, they're doing it extremely well. If you like your Snow Patrols et al you'd like this, because it's actually better. It's less pretentious and far more 'about the music', if you will. In particular
Look The Other Way struck me as brilliant example of how a proper 'haunting mellow' indie track really ought to be done.
As some of the regular readers in these parts may already know, one of my biggest pet peeves is the current trend of exaggerated regional accents in British music. 50Hz are a bit guilty of this, as the London twang of front man Mark Nilsson comes through more often than not. I'll forgive them though, since as far as accents go it's fairly neutral and at times actually makes the tracks feel more familiar (anyone who has spent time anywhere near London's thriving indie music scene will know what I mean).
I definitely find myself in two minds about this album – on the one hand it strikes me as something I should probably dislike (given how it treads the same weary path as countless others before it), however I just can't. It's so well crafted and comfortable in it's shoes that it stares my cynicism down and asks it “Yeah? So what?”. This is probably something you should listen to once you're sick of the established indie acts, and contrast what can be done when you've had a few more years to refine your work.
Also worth mentioning is the bands fairly ballsy shot at releasing their debut album on their own home-made record label, Blue Tide Records Ltd. True they've had to heavily scrimp on packaging material (you'll only get a flimsy sleeve and no internal artwork or anything), but if you were launching your first album all on your lonesome you'd probably be looking to keep costs down as well. Whether this proves to be a prudent investment, or a career-smothering cock-up remains to be seen.
The single
Panic Attack was released on October 1st, with the full album
Here Goes Everything due for release on November 20th. The band claim they'll only be printing 1000 copies as a 'limited edition release'. Excuse me for a second while I snigger at the audacity of a debut album being 'limited to 1000 copies'. In fact I'm deducting a few points from 50Hz for coming out with something so freaking daft after I just told people their album was good. If you manage to somehow miss one of these 'super rare' CD's, you can always find Here Goes Everything on iTunes.
http://www.myspace.com/50hz http://www.50hertz.co.uk/
