Small Enclosed Area

Elgin/Aberdeen 5 piece see review for more details.
We are always interested in discussing gig swaps visit www.smallenclosedarea.com to get in touch.

Apparently, there are two types of bands that come from Scotland -- bands that think it's a 1983 dance party (Franz Ferdinand, for those living under a rock) and bands that want to blast your face in with as many Big Muff pedals as possible (Mogwai, Idlewild). The young upstarts named Small Enclosed Area sit firmly in the brutally-loud-minus-any-hipster-dance-party-swagger category and much of the United Kingdom is thankfully beginning to take notice.

Their two previous EPs having already received extensive radio play on Britain's Radio 1 and Radio Scotland, Small Enclosed Area is currently ensconced at Unity Studios outside of Inverness (Scotland, for the uninformed) working on their full-length debut. The three sneaked and leaked tracks from the Unity Sessions (Little Urban Achiever, Norwegian Machine Gunner and Big Bad Wolf) all take lessons learned from noted masters of dynamics such as Mogwai and Pelican. Loud crashing waves of fuzzed-out guitars cede to gently picked melodies that seem to endlessly swirl around tender vocals vaguely reminiscent of Tool's Maynard Keenan, minus the lyrically absurd obtuseness.

With no Unity Sessions tracks coming in under the 5 minute mark, there's one other thing this Scottish fivesome has learned from their post-rock predecessors: build, build, build, ebb slightly, build, build and climax. It works well for them and with a little bit of luck, Small Enclosed Area will be crossing the Atlantic shortly to a wide open area suitable for their style of rock-- America.

ATX Magazine SXSW Edition, Review by Marc Perlman