ΔΙΣΚΟΚΡΙΤΙΚΗ

BROKEN RECORDS: "UNTIL THE EARTH BEGINS TO PART"
by George Georgiou (song292@yahoo.gr)



Almost 42 minutes of the Scottish septet "Broken Records" debut album attempt to race the history of folk, Celtic rock of ages gone by. Instead of the hype of being Edinburgh's Arcade Fire, they dive deep in the spirit of legendary Waterboys sharing the pieces they grab between both of the two eras: Celtic, epic rock along with folk traditional music. There is also electric tension with cowpunk impressions of The Pogues or folkabilly attractive singles reminding of The Men They Couldn't Hang. The neoclassical growing epic opener "Nearly home", building up a vivid horizon, always filling with rich foldings of sound and marching drums, leads to a bombastic crescendo and probably describes at the same time the basic conception of "Until the earth begins to part" album. Rerecorded already known single "If the news make you sad don't watch it", flows easily carrying a comfortable attraction as a clearing for a mediocre listener, who doesn't really stand for the Celts. The album title track builds the vision of apocalypse, driving again to the growing and building sound tactics... Broken Records attempt to grab the echoes of what their Edinburgh mates used to call "The Big Music" back to the 80's, holding the weapon of sentiment to their front line and they already certainly have been a pleasant surprise for an audience filled with nostalgia for this hue of sound. But they also leave the impression of standing at the crossroads of the critical direction: will they go on swimming in sympathetic tunes, feeding the needs of a certain piece of audience or do they have the guts to drive their blessed influences to a bigger sphere of expression and creation, singing finally for their own "Big Music" of our days? Only time will tell...