The shredding is absolutely real on the latest and self titled album from All The Best Tapes. I discovered All the Best Tapes about two months ago and upon experiencing this album of blistering and fast paced songs I pretty much haven’t stopped listening to it. It’s at the point now where I have the songs memorized note by hyper speed note and if I actually had the music playing chops that this trio had, I could hop on stage and play along with them. A brief history on the band before I attempt to describe these dudes jams. All The Best Tapes is a trio (duh, are you not paying attention) from Stoke City, England consisting of Marcus (vocals and electric guitar) Danny (drums, percussion, and backing vocals) and Luke (bass, guitar, vocals, electronics) I would give out their last names, but all three of them are on the most wanted international criminals list and they threatened to take me down if I went public with their identities.
So now that you know that my life is in danger, lets continue on with the review. I’ve always been a fan of technical spazzy type music, but I’m only fan if there is a solid beat behind it and if there is some creative energy put into the vocals. All The Best Tapes are quite good at mixing both of these elements in with their brand of technicality. The drumming from Danny is solid throughout the album, but the thing that makes his beats special is he knows when to let the rest of the band shred without feeling the need to follow ever possible riff, the highlights on All The Best Tapes for me is when he opens the beat up and lets everything cruise. Marcus’ vocals are refreshing, his clean shouted voice matches the vibe of All The Best Tapes music perfectly and when he does get distorted it gives the bands’ compositions that extra punch that it needs.
I’m not positive on this, but Marcus and Luke may have seem weird psychic connection or maybe they were conjoined twins who were separated at birth because these two seem to lock up with the riffing at ease, and when they separate from each other it works quite well. All nine tracks on All The Best Tapes are solid, with interesting time signatures and tempos mixed in every song. I think my favorite off of the album though is track four “Conservatoria in Threes,” on this song the whole band backs off on the shred and centers the song more on the delicate vocal melodies included in the song.
There are plenty of bands out their that center their music around fast paced technical math riffs, but the difference between the majority of those bands and All The Best Tapes is that these dudes now how to mix up the mood of their music . While the majority of the songs are based on the shred, there are several times in each track where the band lets up and brings in an open dreamy element to the breakdowns and transitions. That is the aspect of All The Best Tapes that I enjoy the most. It takes a creativity and extra effort to mix in outside elements with music this complex and All The Best Tapes have certainly succeed in doing so. This is All The Best Tapes third release overall and on this third and self titled release the band has grown tremendously. I hope that in the future the band continues to mix more of these softer dreamy elements into the genius brand of technicality and hopefully they keep gaining popularity so they can make it over to the U.S. so that I can experience the awesomeness of All The Best Tapes live. Long story short, this album is dope and you need to get on it!