Wednesday 27 May 2009

Falafel Babies - Celebrities In Space EP


This is the perfect example of being drawn to a band purely by their name. To those of you who know me you’ll already know that some time ago I got pretty ill and for those of you who don’t I’ll spare you the gruesome details. Simply put I lost a considerable amount of weight in a short space of time. This resulted in me looking a little like that odd gaunt boy who sat alone in the school dining room, eating his specially made, dietetically safe packed lunch that his mum always prepared for him. The list of things I need to avoid eating now vastly out ways the list of things I can. No more red meat, complex carbs, dairy, I could go on but you get the point, basically all the good stuff. On the plus side though I did discover the wonderful world of Middle Eastern food. My obsession with Falafel became so bad my girlfriend became reluctant to share a bed with me some nights (this is what I put it down to anyway) and after a while I grew tiresome of my failed attempts to make the stuff (not enough olive oil apparently). So when I stumbled along this EP on the ‘No Name Leeds’ blog (See link below) I got pretty excited.

The band are a two piece consisting of Peter Hernandez (guitar and vocals) and Clare O’Kane (Vocals). Their interests listed on their last fm biography are; astronomy, the deep sea and fighting vampires and ghouls. However with songs about Scarlett Johannsen, Lindsay Lohan and Marlon Brando it would seem they spent more time in the video store than battling monsters through the night. Song titles such as ‘Poppyseed’ and ‘Space Jam’ let you know it’s going to be a quirky piece of work, and it certainly is that. ‘Ivy Atoms’ in particular is a wonderful example of this. Sounding like the kind of song you wished you were listening to on your Sony Walkmen during the mid nineties. Instead of the tape you played of songs that you'd recorded off the radio .

In conclusion though as a whole piece of work it all seems a bit too familiar for me. Don’t get me wrong, I do like it, but it does tend to sound a little too much like Moldy peaches/Kimya Dawson/Aiden Smith/ Emmy The Great etc without doing anything new and innovating for it too stand out on its own merits. Regardless of this, it’s definitely worth checking out for yourself especially if you’re a fan of the abvove mentioned artists. So If you liked Juno and you like your folk music a little upbeat and off the wall then this could be a pleasant little EP to set your summer up nicely.

Score: 6.2/10

Stand out track: Ivy Atoms

Genre: Folk, Alt Folk,

Links to music:

Download: http://nonameleeds.blogspot.com/2009/05/falafel-babies-celebrities-in-space-ep.html

Myspace: www.myspace.com/falafelbabies

Last FM: http://www.last.fm/music/Falafel+Babies

Video:

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