Freshly formed quartet Ninetails began life together by mulling over their shared appreciation of the sort of math-rock and indie that spanned from the likes of Tubelord to more further adrift acts, such as Metamusic. Further to this, many of the members came from a background based in a variety of older bands or performing arts establishments in the North-West. All of this means that upon their formation, they already had a very clear and distinct objective in mind, they certainly haven’t had to spend too much time deliberating over their approach or sound.
Ghost Ride the Whip is a brief 3-track record that goes some way into putting down the basis of this intent and demonstrates the variation they may well just need to stick out from the crowd. The opening, and indeed flagship, track ‘I.F’ (Infinite Forever) begins with a bright and sweetly constructed guitar part that immediately brings a very apparent shade of Battles to the fore, before expanding into a
much bigger and slightly rockier instrumental sound. Despite consisting of a solid three minutes of length, this track rapidly interchanges between rhythms and tones that leave a quite brisk impression on the listener. However, the band do well to slip it seamlessly into track two, ‘Pedestrian’, a title that appears to mock the song’s delicate beginning. In truth though, it is arguably the most accomplished song on the record, the way in which the guitar parts intertwine and grow with each other in between harder and softer sections of the song demonstrates not just the variation that the band possess, but the exceptional musicianship that they all have at their finger tips. The vocals of Ed Black properly come to the fore in this track also, but never overbear or diminish the integrity of their instrumental focus, due to the competency with which the two are constructed in unison.
The record closes with ‘Social Guesswork’, a song built with a more stylistically bluesy kind of tone, accentuated by the vocals, a perhaps more tell-tale sign of the eclectic musical taste that the band members all share.
All in all, this debut record gives a very accomplished and promising account of themselves, but it is yet to be seen precisely what unique qualities they bring to the table yet, given the many explorations into this sound that British independent music has witnessed over the last few years.
[Rating: 3.5]
