For nearly 10 years Dorset’s Xander Allen and his band of musicians “The Keys” have been treading the boards of local music venues and festivals, spreading joy and positivity at each event. Whether playing covers by their favourite bands, particularly Kings Of Leon or performing their original material, you can never challenge them on their lack of effort. They have always given their all with everything they do and the seamless changes of line-ups show carefully selected members with the right aptitude for the band.
This month sees the band deliver a 5 track EP, which is a culmination of years of experimenting with different things and finds the band’s standout sound. Xander explains “we decided to record everything live (in separate rooms in the studio) so that we kept that live feel. It’s less clinical than on the last release which gave us more freedom to focus on playing together as tight as possible, rather than layering tracks separately. This did mean way more takes and I lost my voice at one point and had to re-record the vocals a week later separately from the band”.
The EP features a mixture of three brand new compositions and two older songs that the band have never previously released; “Cigarette Blues” and “Used To The Noise”. If you have seen the band live you may recognise the tracks from their live set. The EP’s unique artwork styling is an actual painting made exclusively for the EP by local artist Aaron Peever; who is a young up-and-coming Welsh Painter, who is now based in Dorset after recently graduating from Bournemouth Arts University.
The EP opens powerfully with “Masquerade”, a track undoubtedly for guitar lovers; the opening burst of alternative-sounding strings work, combined with notable rhythms and Xander’s dominant and determined hard-hitting vocals. The sound is quite a departure from the band’s previous material and shows the band really pushing the envelope with a heavier sound than we were previously used to. The song lyrics are taken from observations of people who are being unfaithful to each other, they both know about it but don’t talk about it.
“Used to the Noise” starts off with the sound of a chugging electric guitar, before the vocal kicks in and the quartet show their ever-expanding chemistry with a slice of uplifting energetic Rock that boasts many notable highlights. It’s an ode to the 1990s Seattle Grunge scene and the material that Xander grew up listening to, especially ‘Nirvana’.
“Showdown” is for me probably the standout track from this collection, with its anthemic chorus and wonderfully creative guitar parts and infectious rhythms. This shows the band firing on all cylinders with a track that sees them moving out of their Indie comfort zone to a more hard Rock area – Xander will be growing his hair long next, wearing a bandana and a patch-filled denim waistcoat (or maybe not), a great track all the same and possibly one of their best to date.
With track four “Tell Me What You Are” we are back in more familiar territory with a tune that weaves the band’s many skills together to create a song that works equally well live as it does on record. It is inspired by ‘Catfish and the Bottlemen’ and the band listened to their albums constantly while on the road in 2015.
The final track is one I am more familiar with, as in October 2016 the band were guests on a local radio show Livewire Live that I used to host. This and a couple of other tracks were part of their live acoustic set that evening. The song was quite raw and in a completely stripped-down format and over the years it has become a part of the band’s live set with some notable changes. Thankfully the track has finally been properly recorded and acts as a very suitable closing number on this collection. It starts off slowly at first before some really unusual instrumentation bolsters the track and Xander shows us some more of his euphonious vocal delivery before a remarkable guitar solo beautifully brings the track magnificently to life.
Xander & The Keys with this EP seem to have hit a fine creative vein and this current line-up has brought together great chemistry, that shows the band blossoming with some great original material that deserves to be heard by a much larger audience than they currently reach. All tracks are radio-friendly and wouldn’t be out of place if presently offered to some Indie and Rock radio stations.
Track Listing
Masquerade
Used to the Noise
Showdown
Tell Me What You Are
Cigarette Blues
Xander & The Keys are
Xander Allen – Vocals/Guitar
Dan Edwards – Lead Guitar
James Morel – Bass
Richard Barker – Drums
Links
https://www.facebook.com/Xandkeys
https://twitter.com/xandkeys
Words by David Chinery (Chinners)
