While waiting for an interview at Canadian Music Week this past March, I was lucky enough to be introduced to an Ontarian duo who showed just how much is possible with two men, a guitar, a drum kit and a wall of beautiful distortion. The kids call it “rock and roll”. Brandyn James Aikins and Daniel Brandon Allen call it Indian Handcrafts.
Kind enough to leave me with their three track EP Peace, I finally had the chance to give the album a listen (or twelve) over the past week and I was thrilled to see the intensity I saw on the stage well represented on the album.
First up is “Flight of the Last Starcraft”, a track which breathes all the sort of music that inspired the duo: Motorhead immediately comes to mind, with their simple (yet epic all the same) riffs and beats. The scowling vocals, meanwhile, sit somewhere between Jesse Hughes from Eagles of Death Metal, and Lemmy. You can check out the song being played live here:
Next up is a faithful, albiet far dirtier, cover of Fu Manchu‘s “Hell on Wheels”. Despite being a relatively new group, this is a band who definitely know their sound, making the track their own. Finally, we have the fantastically named “Timothy Leary Faces The Wolfman”, a primarily instrumental number with largely unintelligible lyrics – which one would imagine is about this man:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Leary
Much like the effects of LCD that Timothy Leary advocated, Indian Handcrafts take you on an epic journey in this 4:40 number. It makes you want to headbang. Headbang hard. It makes you want to party. Party hard. Andrew WK would be proud. I for one can’t wait to see just how hard this Canadian duo party in the years to come, and how far they go. There are some great tracks here and I’d love to hear more.
Review Score: 7.5/10
Listen to, and learn more about Indian Handcrafts here: http://www.myspace.com/indianhandcrafts/
