Hands up if you like strumstep? Hello? Anyone… ? Hang on – what’s that? You don’t know what strumstep is???? How can that be?
Actually it’s quite a forgivable sin – so, as a blogger trying to navigate this portmanteau sea of mangled music terms, let me try and enlighten you… Strumstep’s a loose term coined by East London five-piece Don’t Wait Animate to describe the blend of indie and dubstep they pioneer. As you might suspect of these two musical styles, their progeny is fast-paced (taking in the traditional two-step dub beat), raw and aggressive: an in-your-face sound that’s definitely a bit unique.
Listening to Don’t Wait Animate’s MySpace page, it quickly strikes me that no two songs sound especially similar, even if they all have the same electronic, snare-heavy energy in common. While that makes it hard to get a real handle on the band, it keeps things fresh and exciting. Noah Sparks is perhaps the most straightforward and radio-friendly number (despite a kicking little shuffle in the middle), beginning with portentous guitar riffs that simmer and boil to an inevitably loud chorus. As best as I can tell it’s a song about threesomes, yet one that uses rather pretty phrases like “besparkled consciousness”. Brilliant. Much shoutier is 6174, a blistering rip-roarer with an intro that makes you think you’ve stumbled into a Mexican cantina. Atlas Moans shrills with wailing guitars, taut with tension, and seems to be permanently teetering on the edge of full-blown rage, the strumming electronic strings and bashing drums bristling with repressed intent. Signum is much closer to electronica, a quieter, spritelier tune with suffused, distorted vocals.
If you want to find out the band’s own take on their sound, Dazed ran an interesting interview recently.
But why not see them in action – strumstep gigs don’t come along that often, after all.
Live dates:
Sat 18 July – New Cross Inn, New Cross
Wed 22 July – Punk, Soho (Soho’s Got Talent night) (on early in evening) (more info here)
Wed 22 July – 93 Feet East, Shoreditch (on late in evening – headlining) (more info here)
Fri 31 July – The Montague Arms, Peckham
Thurs 20 Aug – New Cross Inn, New Cross
Don’t Wait Animate on MySpace – currently with another FREE TRACK to download
Don’t Wait Animate’s blog
MP3s:
Don’t Wait Animate – Noah Sparks (zSHARE)
Don’t Wait Animate – Atlas Sounds (zSHARE)
Love these guys! So glad you wrote this… Seen em live last week! Best gig in forever!
I was already excited about seeing them in the flesh-and-bone… but now you’ve really ratcheted it up! bring on 22 July
thanks for writing – Richard
i couldnt agree more saw them at 93 feet east nearly went outta my mind with the sick beats, hope to see em again soon
this is a grate band saw them in london love the music and the new one 6174, thought it was brill like to see more its new and exciting carry on guys