October 9, 2007
iLiKETRAiNS: 'Elegies To Lessons Learnt'
'Put these chaps on the syllabus, Mr Ed Balls'
7 / 10
A recent report announced that fewer than one in three GCSE students choose history. That would annoy iLiKETRAiNS. The debut album from the Leeds sonic evangelists features tracks about an assassinated prime minister, the Salem witch trials and an East German border guard who committed suicide through guilt after escaping to the West. Put these chaps on the syllabus, Mr Ed Balls (Schools Minister, politics fans)! These subjects are then twinned with a sound rich in solemn and ultimately cacophonous guitar. Six-minute opener ‘We All Fall Down’ – about bubonic plague in 17th century Derbyshire – builds from a sleepy intro into a barrage of frenzied strumming. Sigur Rós have shown orchestral rock doesn’t have to have you reaching for the happy pills. With iLiKETRAiNS you get a history lesson thrown in too. First class.
Stephen Worthy
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