Singles

Samsa - To Conquer

Bill Cummings 00/00/0000

Rating: 2.5/5

Samsa are yet another three piece band of guitar wielding hopefuls to emerge from the music scene in Leeds, judging by the amount of material we receive from “New Yorkshire” A+R men must be foraging in every dirty crevice of that fair city since the arrival of The Kaiser Chiefs et al. Samsa trade in the kind of building emotional alternative rock dynamics that served My Vitriol's debut album “Fine Lines” so well, although they're not quite in that league. A side “To Conquer” tightly wound verses are built up into some vaguely urgent crunching waves of distortion above which singer Oli Deakin earnestly emotes for all his worth.

The problem is, its a formula we've many times before and whilst the press release assures us that Samsa produce “great melodies and explosive musical catharsis,” but I cant help but think that this is nothing new, in fact its just about average. Try as (frontman name) might the vocals aren't anything special either, its the kind of affected Americanised disenchantment that sounds more like someone's nicked his last crisp, than trampled on his heart: it's the kind of track that exists in a world of mediocrity the kind of forgettable single that gets tossed onto an XFM play list simply because its “new.”

That's not to say the band don't have “some” promise, Bside “Another Night” is probably the most successful of the two tracks here, its brooding vocals, weary spindly Bloc Party-esque guitar notes, do open out into loud widescreen tumbling licks in the second half, the rhythm section allows more breath space, allowing the vocalists to produce some more believable quivering melancholia. One can imagine it as the soundtrack to a weary walk home from the pub after having an argument with your girlfriend. It's certainly a step up from “To Conquer” but then again its not the “greatness” or the “explosiveness” we were promised. Samsa then another band to add to the massive pile marked “could, nay should do better!”