polaroids of androids

Ok, let's not beat around anything that resembles a bush. Ignore the cover. Yes, it looks like the new Bloc Party album. Get over it.

Motocade are a New Zealand band that have put together an EP of intelligently crafted, well thoughtout music. They are in the game of making popular catchy rock, which means that any mistakes are easily identifiable. Their sound is a slight spin on the popular indie rock that has been done before, something like the British bands that have the accessible enough sound to gain fame in the US and other former colonies, with the heavier sound of New Zealand music wrapped over the top. It's the nature of their music they put out that they are automatically compared to the likes of Bloc Party (not just on the album cover) as well as the Kaiser Chiefs and Arctic Monkeys. They do more than hold their own - with the twist they put on the sound enough to break them out of any direct comparisions.

The vocals on this release are some of the best, and some of the most distinguisable I have heard on a record for some time. If I had to compare them to anyone on a vocal front it would be Dirty Little Secret, but with less whine. The music is catchy and, although they don't drift too far from their core sound, every song is unique, as well as successfully being a small part of a bigger picture. It's not a collection of singles or even a single wrapped in cannon fodder, but rather a sneak peak at a talented band that deserve a full release to their name.

The seven-track EP doesn't have a dull moment. The middle track, BBC Blues is a standout, with the more desperate, forced vocals working perfectly with the melody of the track. But it's hard to pick a favourite - as many of the songs are instantly memorable, with lyrics sticking in the listeners heads for days. If the plan was to take the overdone sub-genre of indie pop rock, bend it just enough to show the heavy influences of the music scene they are part of and add in some more intelligent lyrics - then it worked perfectly.