To Tell It Like It Is. To Be Brutally Honest. To Pull No Punches etc etc…
Reviewed by Brian McGowan and released by Robar Music
Critically acclaimed 2014 EP, Halfway To Heaven saw Manchester four piece, Mohawk Radio push their noses up against the glittering shop window of fame. Three years later, Shoot From The Hip sees them ready for that elusive breakthrough.
Back in 2012, when the word Brexit had not yet been invented, singer/songwriter, Mia Page arrived in England from her native Bermuda, quickly hooking up with James Gregory, guitar, Dave Quinn, drums and Connor Marsh, bass. Their disparate musical preferences – running the gamut from Pantera to the Stone Roses – imposed a compelling imperative on their songwriting. They would sound like all of them and none.
Five tracks here, all equally impressive. All remarkably lean and confidently delivered.
Gregory’s clanging axe motifs, and Marsh and Quinn’s motorised, bass heavy rhythms alternately provide an underlying sense of menace and unease, as on explosive opener ‘On Your Knees’, or combine with electronic elements to create a thrilling contemporary sound, as on closer, ‘Deserve’.
They serve as magnificently apposite bookends to another three tightly structured songs, each also packed with electrifying dynamic shifts, all showing just how far the band have come in 3 years. Page is a powerful, charismatic frontwoman, between the bursts of clenched guitars and pounding, 3D rhythms, her fiery and provocative vocals light up the material like a firework. From the sharply observational ‘Eyes Wide Shut’, through ‘Even’s insouciant cool, to the deliciously soulful ‘Ready To Love’.
Produced with clarity and zest by Clint Murphy, all are delivered with such conviction and style it’s hard not to be impressed. Roll on the full album.
8 out of 10
Tracklist:
- On Your Knees
- Eyes Wide Shut
- Even
- Ready To Love
- Deserve
