Demos

The Race - Demo

Bill Cummings 02/02/2005

Rating: 4/5

Reading five-piece the Race have been working hard in the past few months to establish a strong live reputation. In October 2004, the hard work paid off and they were features on the XFM unsigned competition and won the internet vote for repeat plays. Its little wonder their sound resembles in part the power and intensity of alt guitar bands like ...Trail Of Dead and the Pixies whilst maintaining a powerful melodic edge that puts them in the same league as Seafood and early moments of Idlewild.

Opener Go Figure, with its powerful riffing, busts into view like the first shaft of sun in spring after a long cold winter. My, does this track build and build into a sky scraping melodic rock beast: the powerful rhythm section clatters against fantastic shouted vocals from twitching front man Dan Buchanan and backing harmonies from guitarist Jess.

The second track shows even more promise. It's a gorgeous, lilting, alt rock track with subtle metallic guitars and a sublime and romantic vocal kicking: “Hazy daze the thrill of summer/you were standing there with flowers in your hair.” The chorus breaks down into a gorgeous harmonic driven slice of guitar led indie.
Here, the Race echo the melodic power of early Idlewild and mid-period Seafood. They are emotional but not in a clichéd Emo way, this is genuinely beautiful music with vocals that are passionate, not fake bluster.

Overall a very impressive demo with both fantastically well realised production and a clarity of sound that is rare in a demo offering. With this kind of pure melodic beauty, The Race clearly have the potential to be big in the hearts of people everywhere; they have a head start on the competition, now all they need is to get themselves a label. It won't be long on the evidence of this.