Echoes and dust

From Paris via our very own London comes the melodic noise of Underground Railroad. They've been making waves on the pub gig circuit around London for a while now, and I for one have been trying to get to every one. The noise they produce live is a remarkable sonic assault, with added 'show'.

Drummer Raphael Mura plays half the set sitting down, the rest standing up whilst alternating between drums and keys AND singing.  The rest of the troupe is made up of smoky Marion Andrau on guitar and joint lead vocals and JB Ganivet on bass.

So, can their second album (first full length proper) live up to the high expectations? In short, very nearly. What you get served on this album is not the most original, inventive or fashionable (no 80's synth or african guitar motives here) but it is bloody great at what it does and what it does is a melodic Sonic Youth by way of MBV. The sound is more refined than their debut but this does not mean watered down. It's tighter, better and stronger, with more melody (don't worry they haven't gone all Feeling on our asses!).

'Sticks And Stones' has moments of sublime noise like on the title track where Andrau's guitar wailing would not go a miss on Daydream Nation or Dirty. Swapping between female and male vocals gives this album a welcome diversity which allows the listener to be lullabied as well as assaulted. ‘NYC (Money Money)’ is blistering and discordant. Again both very reminiscent of the more shoutier moments in the Sonic Youth cannon or even Fugazi. The same could be said of ‘New Variety’, however it also owes quite a substantial amount to the sound of the criminally overlooked Gallon Drunk

Unfortunately they tend to fall down when they discard the power and replace it with too much whimsy. ‘Stuff In Your Pocket’ is spacey and drugged up but fails to really go anywhere and the spoken words don't add anything to it, ‘Six Pieds Sous Terre’ is simply weak. Equally final track ‘Idealize’ fails to materialise or live up to the greatness promised from other tracks on the album. It builds and builds but really doesn't develop into anything, again seemingly lost in the ether.

Overall, a band with great promise, some worthy noise mongering but too many weak moments towards the end to really bother our top albums of the year poll..

Top Tracks :'Sticks And Stones', 'NYC (Money Money)'.

Released 29/09/2008 on One Little Indian