Album Review: Overthrow - Ghost In The Machine EP

Overthrow offer a middle-ground somewhere between alternative rock (fuelled by the reverb-powered guitars and ingenious moments of musicianship) and british-tinged pop-punk (notably in the songwriting and vocal department). Their EP ‘Ghost In The Machine’ is a shaky foot into the world of new british bands.

The first three tracks offer the kind of pop-rock songwriting you’d expect with comfortable 3 minutes and a half slices of easily digested material somewhere between dancey, bouncey and shakey. However ‘By Night We Escape’, ‘Cut Loose’ and the pacier ‘Vivid Reminder’ do share a taste for less-obvious melodies, and a few rockier parts that make the most out of the musician tricks they can pull off.

‘Doublespeak’ is tinged in the more recent british trend of pop-punk bathed in the atmospherics of the band. The copious amount of energy packed behind the instrumentals manage to pull it over most of the British i-wish-we-were-yanks pop-punk copy-cats out there. The lengthy instrumental portion at the end is another example of their versatility and their distinctiveness. ‘C3PO’ stands out as one of the best moments off the EP, kicking off with a ‘Roxanne’ vibe and ending with a fuzzy wah-wah pedalled solo. Sadly, ‘Rick Stein Is Addicted To Mobile Discos’ ends up sounded forgettable, and certainly doesn’t do justice to the rest of the EP.

Given a little time, Overthrow could learn to use their obvious talent and skills to best effect. While nearly all these tracks are good, only one or two truly stand-out by the end of the 23 minutes, but i’m sure that soon they’ll be creating their own brand of excitement for us to enjoy.

3/5

'Ghost In The Machine EP' by Overthrow is available now through Bandcamp.




Overthrow on MySpace.

James Berclaz-Lewis