Like a great many we were impressed and excited by Monkey See, Monkey Do Doo, the debut album from UK band Semitt Falls. It was an unpredictable and inventive twisting of flavours and imagination which marked out a band with the potential to rise to major things. It also set a high benchmark for the band to follow but for the only time they meet expectations the Stockport quartet easily take that plateau and lose it in the wake of their scintillating new EP I Know Bear Heads. The four track release is a tremendous weave of captivating invention and busily flavoured enterprise which makes the earlier album look like mere foreplay to the main event. Fusing electro metal with more of its muscular cousins and then aligning them with a breath-taking web of genres such as drum and bass, hip-hop, dub, reggae, and dubstep, the band conjures a kaleidoscope of sound which tantalises and seduces whilst sparking a riot in the passions.
Semitt Falls was formed in 2012 by Paul Kendrick (guitar, vocals and programming) and Jay Kane (vocals, synths) after the demise of their previous band Halt Under Heavy Fire. Linking up with ex-Fortune Favours Nothing member Danny Houghton (drums) who since the EP release has left the band, and subsequently ex- Son of Shinobi Craig Gilroy (bass , vocals) after a few line-up changes, the quartet evolved an initially post-hardcore sound into a more electronic rock sculpted persuasion, a sound which has continued to move and change with every song and release. The release of Monkey See, Monkey Do Doo in May of last year thrust the band into a wider focus of attention with its intensive diversity and mouthwatering adventure but as mentioned it now seems just an appetiser for greater things from the band, a mightier exploration starting to confidently flex its muscle and invention upon I Know Bear Heads. With a line-up for the EP seeing bassist Sidge Rushton replacing the departed Gilroy, Semitt Falls have unveiled a riotous temptation which just will not take no for an answer.
The EP seizes ears, imagination, and passion right away with opener FIRE!FIRE!FIRE!, a track also featuring G.R.I.M. 
frontman Lance Hargreaves. Funnelling through a distantly starting corridor, riffs and vocals emerge in a flood of energy and transfixing sonic confrontation. Once fully exposed and immediately into its rampant stride the song sees mixed vocal squalls igniting the senses whilst resourceful riffery and a rhythmic cage sculpt compelling narratives to secure a swiftly brewed appetite for the song’s presence. Ripe with swipes of hip hop vocals, dubstep conjuring, and a metal bred antagonism the track is an irresistible rampage merging the electronic addictiveness of Pendulum with the punk metal of The Prodigy and Skindred. It is a thrilling introduction to the release breeding a keen hunger and greed for what is to come.
The following We Be Dinosaur takes little time in offering something different, a quality repeated from their previous album, every song a unique and individual character and proposition to the next. Opening with an evocative electronic caress with shards of crystalline causticity, the track at first has an Enter Shikari like coaxing to its offering though it is soon evolved into a stomp of ska and reggae fusion guided by excellent darker vocals and a delicious trombone croon from Rushton and Andy Jones. Adding some punk rapaciousness and electronic teasing to the impressive spread of vocals and exhilarating invention, the track roams and incites the passions like a mix of King Prawn, Hadouken, and Daft Punk with adding essences of Dizraeli and the Small Gods. It a glorious landscape of pleasure and imagination which takes the impressive start of the release up another notch or two in thought and creative wantonness.
The title track brings a less urgent presence to tempt the senses, vocals and guitars showing a more deliberate restraint to their enticement which the keys and vocals wrap in an evocation of sound and absorbing soak of emotion. With samples also adding their unique touch to the flowing musical narrative it is a strong and engaging encounter but one just failing to match the heady heights and quality of its predecessors. Nevertheless the song embraces focus and appetite tightly warming them up for the closing exploits of Global Warning. The final track retains the smouldering charms of the previous song whilst inviting the more predacious energy and snarl of the first two tracks, the result another incitement to launch a fresh breath of ardour for band and release even if again despite its glowing elegance and magnetic craft it just misses hitting those early plateaus.
Immediately a gripping and entrancing tempest of imaginative excitement, the EP just gets better and stronger with every traverse of its easily impressive body. Semitt Falls has all the potential and promise to be the next big thing in electro rock experimentation, something rigorously confirmed by I Know Bear Heads.
Get the I Know Bear Heads EP as a buy now name your price at http://semittfalls.bandcamp.com/album/i-know-bear-heads-ep
9/10
RingMaster 17/12/2013
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