Carter Daze – The ‘North Korean Democracy’ EP.
Carter Daze – Woking, England, United Kingdom.
Intelligent but Nihilistic Indie-Punk that sounds like mid-to-late 90’s Ash crossed with elements of The Jam and a generally bleak heavily-Punk orientated approach to life and music. Review over, see you next time.
No, not quite. Carter Daze hail from Woking and very recently unveiled their five-track set of playful catharsis via the North Korean Democracy EP that has rumoured to be on Kim Jong Un’s regular rotation. Carter Daze pull from Punk in a way very obvious but choose to display it musically it at-least, majoritively mid-tempo, layered, sharp, gritty and lighthearted in a way that would make those early (The) Libertines records sound as they came after.
In many ways, the band don’t sound too dissimilar from the Indie-Punk-Rock of London’s False Heads who you should almost certainly direct your retinas towards post-haste.
Within the opening notes of ‘Trixy’ you are partially hooked but more so intrigued as the opener completes it task. ‘Lose Control’ continues the mid-pace and quite notably contrasts this playful Indie Rock and Punk-Rock hybrid with increasing lyrical aggression throughout the verses building into a chorus oh so memorable.
‘Minimum Wage’ is more obvious in how down-right pissed-off it is. Again, although the band are gritty and do carry over some of the Punk aggression musically, the band hit this rusty nail on the head verbally more so and it works in another track very much a sign of the times. Notably, and unexpectedly you for the second time feel the band’s Social Distortion-esque guitar work again in the short solo just to show you aren’t imagining it.
‘Just How I’m Feeling Today’ is interestingly written, the band are feeling nihilistic, pessimistic and any other host of negative “isitics” and through the heavily accentuated anglicised vocals the point is especially laid bare. The band on the other hand do have some hope but as is the nature of uncertainty, it’s always looming heavily.
Musically, Carter Daze are still sat firmly between Punk and Indie Rock and it works. In fact it is indeed very hard to say much else about their sound as it really does “just work”, which leads us on to the closing ‘Grab Your Jacket (We’re going Out)’.
This final track and its stellar intro has a near perfect tone as it introduces a song bitter and sad but also again, showing a glimpse of hope despite all the negative and relatable connotations. It has some of best and most Punk-Rock moments of an EP that gets better and better without really changing and really is testament to the hard work of such a young band.
North Korean Democracy, give it whirl, you’ll enjoy it.
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