Demos

Pilots Of The Sixth - Arbury Demonstrations

04/06/2006

Rating: 3/5

Cambridge 3-piece Pilots of the Sixth (the sixth what?) are 'sick of hearing shit' music. So, take this how you will, but on this evidence, the Pilots' solution is plunder the legacy of Carl Barat and Pete Doherty and fill a suspiciously Arctic Monkeys sized gap in the indie market. First song No One Cares pays homage to Doherty-esque Libertines with a jaunty trawl through minor chord verses and blues scale guitar licks. “I'm over here I'm over here” they cry plaintively, but apparently no one cares.

Next up is the Pilots tribute to Carl Barat Libertines songs, Piccadilly, which borrows (practically steals) from Death on the Stairs, with the similar lite-distortion guitars, this time moving through traditional I-IV-V chord progression, and the vocalist unsure of whether to imitate Barat's wry vocal style or Doherty's fragile London town accent. The lyric “Let's go to Piccadilly and we can find Peter” hardly helps quash the comparisons. The Pilots lack the passion and the energy that made The Libertines so fresh, however, and the whole sound is a little on the nicey-nice side.

Keep On Talking is weaker than the previous tracks with an understated mo-town production and a different vocalist who doesn't quite step up to the mark. This rockier song is instantly forgettable, and at best unremarkable.

You could be forgiven, reading this review up til now, to think that this final paragraph would be the nail in the coffin for POTS. It is not such an open and shut casket. No One Cares and Piccadilly, despite their dependence on Doherty/Barat, are very well rounded songs indeed, weighing in at about two and a half minutes each. Lightweight indie with huge appeal, decent lyrics and an ear for warm tunes, POTS could very well push their cause during 2006 and start going places.

http://www.pilotsofthesixth.blogspot.com/