Altsounds - House Of Brothers

It’s clear to see from the hype built around House Of Brothers that their target audience is one of the “Student” persuasion. Do you wear joggers and annoying flip flops to the shops? Or wear those insanely coloured hoodies with the names of the University you sometimes turn up into lectures too? Well if you tick those boxes then lube up your CD player with the latest NME bullshit and wack Document 1 EP in.

Any music, of any kind usually has the common sense to start well, maintain, then either let down or overwhelm with joy. House OF Brothers start off very badly, with self titled track “Document 1”. Musically reminiscent of Coldplay, but lacking the quality in vocal talent from that Chris Martin delivers. At moments in this first track, Andrew Jackson seems to float in and out of tune. It creates a cringe worthy moment, kind of like a Will Smith movie. Speaking of which, ‘House Of Brothers’ does sound like a film that Smith could feature in. Once you get past a shaky beginning, the EP starts to pick up the pace and creates some ambient textures. Sections of harmonised vocals in “Jennifer” conjure up images of a watered down version of Bon Iver. Again they have decided to put their most useful and creative parts towards the end of the record. Using a Damien Rice style of true romance instrumentals to help them through “Broken Blossons”.

House Of Brothers have quite a unique sound. They are kind of like a happy woodland creature providing us with a little bit of cute entertainment. For the long haul it doesn’t seem that House Of Brothers will stick around, unless they tweak their best bits into an indie/ambient/harmony driven assault course.