Dawn Of The Replicants/
I Am Kloot
"You've got blood on your legs," murmurs I Am Kloot's Johnny Bramwell
from the darkness, "I'm in love with you". It's the opening gambit of an
afternoon of acoustic reverie in the hands of two most idiosyncratic bands,
ripping at the tapestry of rock and weaving shocking new shapes from their
own with immeasurable grace.
Mancunian trio I Am Kloot aren't as befuddling or vague as their name. If singer/guitarist Johnny Bramwell's hauntingly Lennon-esque vocals are what initially catch your attention, you are also swiftly seduced by his simple, graceful songs, deliciously rendered here on fragile guitar, cresting bass and gently rumbling drums. More timeless than classicist, I Am Kloot are expert navigators of the bedsit soul. A single, 'Titanic', awaits your purchase.
Back from record label purgatory, Dawn Of The Replicants unveil a batch of new material, distorted brilliance that recalls Led Zeppelin's third album, left to warp in the sun. Songs like 'Hollywood Hills', stripped bare of FX and extraneous carnival noises, are deft mixtures of gentle psychedelia and skewed pop, only a critical few degrees astray from the mainstream.
The tired argument that DOTR have a tendency towards bloody-minded abstraction
doesn't hold this afternoon. In this pared-down state, the simplicity of
their songs, their addictively fried melodicism, are revealed. If they
resist the over-elaborate productions which have sometimes sunk their records,
this could be the beginning of a remarkable second wind.
(Stevie Chick)