85 Bears – Shipwrecking EP

85 Bears - Shipwrecking EP

“A relationship is like a shark, it constantly has to move forward or it dies,” said Woody Allen once. The same really applies to songs over six minutes. Either the listener has to be moved somewhere (bliss, exuberance, trance, whatever), or the song itself has to move somewhere, preferably in a fluid motion. Some of 85 Bears‘ tracks succeed in doing that, some don’t. The band makes instrumental rock, so if you are looking for a bit of fancy vocal work you’re out of luck. Looping guitars, riffs, and drums will try to hypnotise you.

The track ‘Shipwrecking In The 20th Century Was Better In Black and White’ (oh come on!) moves forward in the fluent motion needed. They build and build and build, and then they strip everything away and a new riff takes over as if it was lurking underneath the whole time ready to come out. In this song the individual instruments are put to good use, and because they change the sound of one while keeping the guitar loop the same it stays interesting throughout.

‘Godspeed Young Sir, Your Time Is Up’ has a bit more trouble progressing naturally. The song has a bit of a harder, rockier vibe to it. Here, again, they sometimes strip instruments away, but while on the other track they immediately have a new riff at the ready, here this isn’t so much the case. This results in the track actually stopping and starting over and over again in the first half, so it seems like one of those movies where there is the final scene, you want to stand up and leave, just to find out there is another scene after. With its nine minutes the song is pretty long, but because you feel it has ended multiple times already it just seems neverending.

On ‘Jumpin’ With Joe From The Highest Step’, things get a bit dancier. The riff is catchy, and the drums actually provide something resembling a beat. The beat stays, the guitar progresses and it’s altered every so often to keep it interesting. This lasts the first two minutes, and after that you’re so much into the song it is hard to come out of it again. Halfway they have stripped the song to its bare essentials, and after that slowly they turn the volume up again and from the danceable first half it turns into something more rock, more experimental. No shortage of ideas then.

Ideas aplenty indeed, but whereas sometimes those ideas work wonderfully, sometimes it seems a bit too much in too short a time. It moves like a shark but unlike a shark, it doesn’t always move forward, but all over the place. Channelling these ideas and giving more structure to the songs would probably benefit the final outcome. But at least they have the opportunity to do that, as shortage of ideas seems to be more common these days, and that is something these lads from London do not have to worry about.