One Win Choice – define/Redefine [EP]

Self Released

May 18, 2009, 01:14 AM

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Fed up with lies, a predictable and secure life and with distaste for everything taught at school, New Jersey based punk/hardcore band One Win Choice decided to break their chains and discover their own road. The journey has recently found its way to Europe, where the band will give away thirty performances. Before considering watching the show though, you might want to check out their new EP ‘define/Redefine’ first, as One Win Choice is no ordinary run of the mill band.

The EP starts with ‘Failure to Quit’, quite an uncharacteristic choice as it sounds like nothing else on the album. The sound the singer produces comes most closely to a hunted bear high on speed grunting his farewell speech and it’s supported by four musicians playing four different songs on four different continents. In short: it sounds a little bit unorganized. Lyrically it’s also in contrast with the rest of the songs - quite vague - especially considering lines like ‘we’ve seen the tired run the tired race/ it’s run with hopelessness’ which, in the end, evolve in ‘these words won’t die on our lips/ we won’t let these ideas decay’. And though the vagueness makes the lyrics interesting for the hungry and creative minds, the performance of both the singer and the musicians diminish the value of the song a little bit.

Luckily things look better on the remainder of the EP. ‘Versus Goliath’ is musically quite impressive, with a nomination for the ‘Greatest Guitar Part'. Dark, but highly imaginative lyrics and a singer who almost tries to sing, which makes it a lot more endurable.

One song definitely worth quoting is ‘Under Quarantine’, the less than ninety seconds scream about the bands’ attitude about school, people and life in general. ‘Our hearts, our minds, our dreams are locked behind the doors of education and knowledge sealed from so many by the class structure. Archaic methods and the wilful ignorance of citizens trained and conditioned by the very system that attempts to rob them of their wealth their power and their knowledge’. Couldn’t be any clearer, one would think.

Surely no reason not to repeat the frustrations about the corruption of life again, on ‘Where my Allegiance Lies’. Though the singer hasn’t fully completed the Primal Scream Therapy yet! Musically it finally shows that the band is more than just the next big hardcore/ punk thing. Again, it’s the lead guitarist who stands out, although lyrically it shows some strange kind of growth as well; it not only mentions the sum of frustrations life is full of but this time there’s some plan to save the world as well. ‘We will define, we will redefine, we will teach and we will learn.’ Hence the title 'define/ Redefine'.

And speaking of growing, to see some kind of growth of a band from album one to album five is quite natural, but ‘define/ Redefine’ actually shows a band that grows from song one to song five. Beginning with a heavy and uncontrollable hardcore speech, the album ends with a calm rendition of ‘Every Heart’, which sums up both their opinions and their plans in life, but controlled and in a lyrically sophisticated way. It makes the other songs a bit unnecessary, but most important, it shows that they have more potential than the average ‘ I don’t have any talent, so I’ll just do something and call it art’ band.

You can – and this is a nomination for the ‘Understatement of the Year’ election worthy – hardly define this music as ‘subtle’ or ‘rich in its colours’, but it does stand out in honesty and unpretentiousness. One Win Choice has an original approach to lyric writing and though musically not brilliant – and definitely not recommend for people with a sensitive hearing –.

In summary the band is, for people who got fed up with lies, a predictable and secure life and with distaste for everything taught at school as well. One Win Choice's define:Redefine is a perfect way to meet like-minded people and maybe to get out of the chain you all hate so much.

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