‘Hit the Floor’ is the recent single release from complex alt-indie trio Tall Ships. These three guys from the south coast play a lot of instruments and are renown for creating a huge sense of space with their dynamic and changeable tunes. ‘Hit the Floor’ is therefore a slight departure from the group’s typical fair, featuring little of the in-song tempo or timbre changes often present in their work.
‘Hit the Floor’ is probably the group’s most upbeat, dance inspired track, with a fast, frenzied mesh of guitar sounds based around the repetitive rotation of a simple guitar riff. This guitar riff continuously develops as the track progresses, mutating into a very clever, pleasing interplay between a number of guitar and bass parts, moving through the track in a relentless fashion. Because of the strong guitar presence throughout ‘Hit the Floor’, Tall Ships exude more of an indie pop vibe, rather than their archetypal loop-based math rock. The track is in fact very reminiscent of early Bloc Party, and the nature of the guitar parts are not dissimilar to the famous ‘Helicopter’.
Lyrics in this track are disappointed less poetic and do not have the same degree of subtly than Tall Ships usual work. However, the lyrics are incredibly distorted, and actually rather infrequent; clearly they are not the key focus within ‘Hit the Floor’. The single’s B-side, however, is a much slower, more sedate song, with mellow, subtle instrumentation. ‘Safe as Houses’ contains some beautifully heartfelt and complex metaphors, as well as interesting instrumentation. Within this singe release are two clearly very different tracks, but both exhibit separately the variety of Tall Ship’s music.
I really like Tall Ship’s music generally, and ‘Hit the Floor’ is a fine release, but there is less dynamism or musical intrigue than is typical on their previous work. Both A and B-sides maintain a steady pace, whether that pace be sedate or manic, and neither particularly stray into any notable tempo or instrumental flourishes or anomalies. For me this single is therefore slightly disappointing, and perhaps not up to their best work, although the relative simplicity of ‘Hit the Floor’ will undoubtedly make it more commercial.
16/05/2011
[rating:3]
