REVIEW: Shield Your Eyes - Theme From Kindness

Shield Your Eyes - Them From Kindness (Function Records)

Release date: 18th (digital) and 25th (physical) October 2010

This is a record that, if I was living at home with my parents, I would be told to turn off. 'This isn't music!' I can imagine my Mum shouting at me with her fingers in her ears. And in a sense she would be right. Shield Your Eyes don't really approach songwriting from a conventional point of view, nor do they believe in sounding pristine perfect when they play their instruments. Instead they opt for an askew approach to everything, and they're certainly not afraid of being rough around the edges and to challenge the pre-conceptions of how music should sound.

And, with their third album, they push these boundaries farther than they have done in the past. This is their first record without Tobey Hayes on bass, and with a brand new bassist in place, Shield Your Eyes have a brand new edge. I Took Lead From You And Your Kindness sounds like a warm-up, where instruments and effects are tested out. The instrumental track is a collision of Spanish influences with a wild-west style twist; mandolins and harmonicas, feedback and galloping drums, all coming together in a strangely beautiful discordance before Shield Your Eyes pull themselves together and launch into Pneulope.

Pneulope treads more familiar ground for the band, as they output their raw sound in all of it's unashamed glory. It's plain to see that Shield Your Eyes have made no effort to refine the sound they've established for themselves. Instead, they push it to the limits - twisting notes and challenging perceptions. It's wonderfully DIY, and this is what the band prides themselves upon. One man's heinous racket is another man's modern art, and after all, Theme From Kindness is a work of inexplicable artistry.

Whether Shield Your Eyes are bashing out their unharmonious din (see the record's opener), or slowing down to a soulful pace (Baby You Made a KX250 Out Of Me), there is an underlying feeling that encompasses all sides of their personality - and it's their ability to sound so darn honest. There is a truth with every note played on the record. The aforementioned Baby You Made a KX250 Out Of Me is a prime example of this, as Ketteringham's guitar screeches subtly amongst unabated symbols, and his conversational tone delivers the poetic lyrics that humanise the track - and it just feels real.

Shield Your Eyes offer up a softer side of their temperament on Aves - combining raw vocals with a sweet guitar exercise to form the closest the band could ever get to writing a ballad. But this vibe is only a brief interlude, as the band revert to a more unstable, raucous sound for the remainder of the record.

By the time closer Drawn To Water makes an appearance, it's hard not to be completely captured by Shield Your Eyes unique groove. And in their final hurrah, the band present a cacophony of urgent percussion and frantic plucking of strings - almost like a deranged Four Tet. Abrasive musical passages are embellished with anthemic vocals, before Shield Your Eyes twist their musical knife 180˚and tone it down right down, almost as a wind-down to the whole record. Theme From Kindness eventually flickers out amidst feint conversations, where you'll learn how drummer Henri Grimes takes his hot drinks!

Honest, gripping and downright challenging (not that we'd have it any other way) - Theme From Kindness is not for the faint-hearted. The band offer their own personal take on song-writing, which is a big 'FUCK YOU!' to all the over-produced, soulless crap out there that passes for music these days. And if you manage to get your ears around their sound, you'll find Shield Your Eyes to be a rewarding listen - even if your Mum won't agree.

The verdict: 8/10