Staples of the Northern Irish funk-rock scene: Quadrophonic (formally Quadrophonic FunkMonks and the Gentlemen's Tea-Drinking Society), have released their debut EP titled Tracks In The Snow. It's about time. For too long Quadrophonic would leave audience members eager to get their hands on a physical embodiment of the music they just heard, danced and sang along to. They tease those fans no more.
Quadrophonic is comprised of: Ruairi McKerr (vocals), Matthew O'Hagan (guitar), Brendan Doran (bass), Conor 'George' Mulvenna (saxophone) and Matt Greene (drums). Quadrophonic originates from Lurgan; a land shrouded in fables involving a magical and ever powerful elixir that is known to change the complexion and behaviour of those that consume it, for better or worse. This tonic is cultivated, mixed and blessed by ancient monks at an unkown locale. They named it Buckfast. On occasion, members of Quadrophonic will perform live while under the influence of this brew and tend to, with it's consumption, increase their ability to perform as a tight unit.
Tracks In The Snow takes some of the tracks that fans of Quadrophonic know and love such as Figaro, Oh Brother, Gabriel the Patriot and Moolah and offers up new tracks suchs as Animal Farm, The Sordid Life and Times of Aillistair Kripke along with the title track: Tracks In The Snow. As it turns out, now we've got more energetic and catchy music to accompany the tried and true.
The EP opens with Animal Farm, what's heard first is a moaning moo-like emmitance before the familiar funkyness takes hold. It's hard not to notice the prescence and empathsis on saxophone as George takes lead in the midsong lull to once again summon the vocal stylings of McKerr backed up by the instrumentation which is on-point, just as the baaa-ing heard from uncredited occupants of an actual animal farm.
The much-loved Figaro makes a more fleshed out appearance next. Anyone who got their hands on demos of Figaro will notice and appreciate the improvements made, particularly with the brass. Figaro does not fail and delivers a groove that will no doubt permeate your subconscious manifesting itself through you unbeknownstly in the form of a whistle. Tracks In The Snow shows a march towards a more progressive sound overall. The longer offerings on the EP are all new tracks and as a result provide more room for experimentation, allowing focus on each of the contributors, everything in the mix is clear and nothing is lost in translation.
As Moolah opens with a sonic finger banging from Brendan it meanders to moments that I feel would provide a fitting soundtrack to an acid trip among the pyriamids. The guitar and saxophone's Egyptian prescence are joined by a vocal diatribe aimed at the green queens (green queens is money incase anyone was wondering. Although while under the influence of LSD, you probably will find actual green queens to aim your words at).
Track five, Oh Brother touches on family and religion and a majestic chior seems to enter around 2/3 into the song. It becomes clear it's a sampling of dialog from the Cohen brother's O Brother, Where Art Thou?, notably the moment which Delmar O'Donnell concludes upon his baptism, "The water is fine." Quadrophonic respond by closing the track knowing it's fine to go take a dip and wash away any and all of their funky sins.
The penultimate track is yet another crowd-pleaser. Gabriel the Patriot is surely the flashiest song on the EP without any ostentatiousness. The two namely doppelgangers of the band in Matthew O'Hagan and Matt Greene really take the reigns towards the closing of Gabriel the Patriot and as they do thunder beckons to announce the arrival of the EP's closer.
In what wouldn't sound totally out of place at a Bar Mitzvah, The Sordid Life and Times of Allistair Kripke is the sole instrumental effort on Tracks In The Snow and does well to show the versitility of Quadrophonic. Their ability to do something a little different yet keep the same charm without vocals or lyrics is important to note. While no doubt you could say the hooks are missed on the closing track, it doesn't matter as rest of the EP is rife with hooks-a-plenty. Sometimes this kind of departure is important for facilitating the space for musical investigation into the unkown places yet to be treaded. And let's face it, whenever Yiddish is all that makes sense to be included; unless you're coming from an Orthodox Jewish upbringing it's perhaps it's best that it's omitted.
Tracks In The Snow's production was handled by Matt Greene and while overall, there's not a lot to nit pick - I do feel that the EP misses a certain something. I know that's vague but I reckon where Tracks In The Snow falls short is in conveying the energy that Quadrophonic generate in live performance. Perhaps it's a case of feeding off the crowd and therefore hitting that sweet-spot, maybe the recording sessions were lacking the influence of a certain aformentioned beverage.
Where I'd like to see them go next, whether they put out another EP or their first full-length is to aim for that benchmark they set whenever they perform in front of a crowd. Hopefully in the future they'll put out a live recording. If that's not in their future, then perhaps all they need is to hit the 'Buckie' before they hit record.
~ Quadrophonic's Soundcloud & Facebook page
