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What similarities can you think of between South Wales and Hertfordshire? Not many, I'd wager. Certainly if Neath were to play St Albans at rugby, it would be a walkover. Yet Threatmantics are drawn from the two areas, and somehow bring them together using little more than guitars, keyboards, drums and a viola.
Hang on, a viola? That most ridiculed of orchestral instruments, here it is pushed in to the front line as a purveyor of melody. It's not the first time, mind - it's a good period for the instrument when you consider part of The National's live appeal is the intense sawing of Padma Newsome.
Here it finds sparing but effective use, its first appearance on Don't Care bringing a whole new dimension to their music. Whereas the opening duo of Big Man and Burned Alive hint at an admittedly imaginative take on the quiet-loud, verse/chorus method, the viola brings with it melodies offering a folk-fuelled sense of drama.
The eight tracks making up this mini-album are indication that Threatmantics have the imagination and ambition to take their sound much further, coupled with conviction that gives their music powerful communication. Pertinently Big Man takes the crawling nature of the James Bond theme, throws it on to a lower register guitar, then explodes into an incendiary chorus.
The galloping drums riding into High Waister signal something entirely different, a song in three parts with a darkly sinister centre about the banishment of an unwanted soul. It's a ritual of sorts, an exorcism even, and the viola leads a macabre dance to counter the intentionally plodding central section.
Throughout Threatmantics' music courses a real sense of tension and occasion. Maybe it's something to do with the fact the trio multi task - the drummer even plays keyboards - but the overall sound is stretched, as if each band member has three hands. It's rarely overproduced, mind, and the strong melodies work well when brought to the front.
Countering the more affirmative moments is a darkness that comes to the fore on the ballad James Lemain, a vivid story that finds vocalist Heddwyn Davies on top form.
It's no surprise to find Threatmantics will be supporting Clinic on their forthcoming UK tour, for they share a dark but vividly pictorial outlook, here expressed in more obviously folk-based material. This particular South Wales/St Albans unison should be closely watched.
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