Vinyl Puppet: Scrap Brain

Scrap Brain

Self Penned - With a tirelessly passionate and energetic live performance that makes other bands look tame by comparison, Scrap Brain are raw, noisy, dirty, sexy, glitzy, cybergrunge noise-pop played harder and louder than anyone else. The Edinburgh based trio formed in March 2010, and their achievements include performing at King Tuts Wah Wah Hut with F.O. Machete and Little Doses and winning the New Found Sound Friday Night Live 2010 competition. The band have also shared stages with Gay For Jonny Depp, Skinny Machines, and Los. Scrap Brain are made up of drum-destroyer Stew McLachlan, feedbacker and multi-instrumentalist Myke and front-lady- limelight exhibitor Angie Clarke

Nal - Scrap Brain

Having googled the title I found a passive safety website so I went to Wiki and found Nal is a norse goddess. Not sure that bears any meaning here but an interesting fact. Heavy bass start with a nice quick tempo drum beat, vocals kick in adding weight to the sound and melody. The speed of the song continues on but missing substance.

Black Spots - Scrap Brain

Nice fast beating start with good vocal introducing the black spots in her vision. Builds into an interrupted break out of sound. Leg tapping urgency builds as the vocals scream and the guitar intermittently breaks in to showcase the musical power of this track. Mixture of Florence and the Machine meets Garbage (the band obviously). Vocally very strong and this track would definetly convert very well onto the live scene.

Caspian - Scrap Brain

Strong face paced electro from the off builds us nicely into this great wee track. Got me tapping and singing along (ok just to the ohh ohh bits but then i dont have a copy of the lyrics..... yet) A much stronger song than the first and again vocally impeccable in delivery of this type of song that a man just could not pull off. Catchy and the kind of track you'd enjoy hitting the repeat button on maybe even twice.

Take it (acoustic) - Scrap Brain

Decided to round things off on their acoustic offering as so often bands fall down when you remove their pedals, keyboards and computer effects. Pleasantly this is just as strong as the other tracks carried with the great lyrical offering which weirdly reminded me of a Kate Nash track. Great come down track perfect for the middle of the set to just really blow away the audience with the depth of talent. Left me curious as to the non-acoustic version. Mellow and deep this song provides a nice come down from the fast paced action of the above tracks.

Verdict

Fast paced band touches of punk but probably more mainstream than traditional punk. Great vocally and has a talent to build the song up into a frenzy. Like a test of any decent band they can also be strong with just a guitar and some words, which provides me with the confidence to say this band will likely progress beyond the occassional pub gig. Not unusually of the four songs reviewed and listened to numerous times I would say their debut single would be the weaker of the four. But this leaves plenty of room for this band to develop and progress onto more longer term success and not be defined by their first track. Surely worth your Ł1.50 for the single and the half hour to check out their other tracks.

Links - Scrap Brain Website

Reviewed by Scottish Steve

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