Review - VAMPit 'This Thing, This Something'
independent EP
Whilst ‘This Thing, This Something’ is no ‘You
Don’t Know Me,’ the newest EP from Inner-Western Sydney adult-popsters VAMPit shows two things in the
year in the life of a new Sydney band.
One is determination – VC
Ilagan and the band have been gigging around irregularly at all
sorts of venues with all sorts of artists… that can be as detrimental to a band
as it is good: in detriment it shows them to be ‘desperate’ for a gig but in
their favour it exposes them to more people than just playing to their own
crowd.
One is knowledge of the market – they maintain the
boy-band image through the cover-art of the CD whilst escaping it completely in
the music (for one, these guys actually can play): head-shots on the front
(although the guy at the rear would be a little miffed!) and well-choreographed
inner pics showing the boys lounging around on a sofa out in a paddock
somewhere. I like the super-imposed still of the main-pic and the guys-leaving
on the back of the leaflet… well done!
Finally, there’s growth - ‘This Thing, This Something’ shows
that the band are succeeding in a genre with which most people twice their age
are still coming to grips: the sounds on this album span Stevie
Wonder Higher Ground funk (in an excellent cover of the Temptations
1964 hit My Girl (White/Robinson,
Jobete)), George
Benson jazz (the title track), Santana
soul (Why), early-90s Az One adult-rock combined with
same-era George
O’Dowd in Miss You, and a nouveau-pop version of Wedding
Cake Island to close the show.
Hopefully the next release will be a fully-fledged album, but for mine
EPs are much better with smaller aperitif-sized servings, more room for growth
until next time and less room for failure. But the most important thing
nowadays is a website, which is due for launch even as I write. VAMPit ‘This Thing This
Something’ album - an AA effort from the guys!!