Antidote

Comprising of guitarist/ songwriter/programmer Ben Astrop, drummer Matt Bayne and bassist Ed Pepper, Alien Breed are a UK hybrid rock/dance band that decided to move to Los Angeles after LA based label Delicious Vinyl founder Michael Ross heard their demo. So impressed by what he heard, quickly snapping the band up. Anyone who has ever heard now defunct UK rockers Pitchshifter will easily recognise Alien Breed's cross-fertilisation of melodic rock and hard electronic beats with high production gloss. First single 'Colorblind' (shame it's American spelling of colour), is engagingly catchy, with drum n'bass layered with heavily distorted-guitar ripping into driving, bouncy chorus with a "doo-doo-dooo-do yeaah yeah" vocal line. The band spent two years fine-tuning their music on LA's notorious Sunset Strip, and it does show on 'Antidote' quite clearly - each beat is precise, each background effect strategically placed for maximum impact. It's probably the most slick and polished album I've received to date. The album has a very futuristic vibe running throughout its duration, such as on 'Come Alive', employing industrial effects and keyboards to compliment the traditional set-up of guitar, bass and drums. Opener 'Molasses' meanwhile is aggressive electro-punk where Astrop gives a clever twist in the lyrics of "Get away get away I need you" to punishing beats. The following 'Crackling' is even more melodic with intriguing wordplay: "The sun is stripping the skin to my/ As I lie with the meleon inside me. I turn from R to E to D.". A song about the perils of sunburn? Maybe, but it beats the 'oh-woe-is-me' ramblings of most acts on the US rock circuit. The album ends with an alternative mix of the single, and given the technological nature, the aptly titled 'Colorblind V2.0', a sparser, almost lounge-act reading of the catchiest track on the album. When listening to 'Antidote' the two bands the closest comparisons I can give are the before-mentioned Pitchshifter and Filter, mainly because both bands have strong electronic influences. To conclude this review, all I can say is that Alien Breed have made an album to be proud of, it rocks, it has choruses aplenty, it has commercial values but avoids generic tendencies, and most of all, it holds up to repeated listens. And that's all I can ask for when I listen to something fresh that strays from the rock rulebook. - Alternative Rock Review