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Review: Talk In Code - Face To Face [Single]

Realm // "Suffering from an acute lack of individuality within a style of music crowded by several big names and many smaller ones..."

by Jackio0, June 20th, 2012 and has been Read 727 times.
Last Edited by: Glen June 22nd, 2012.

With the overproduced cleanliness of a whole host of American indie-rock bands with dance tendencies, Talk In Code lie between the admittedly wide range between the dance-floor influenced metal/trance hybrids, and the scream-core of Attack Attack!, Asking Alexandria et al; as well as the pop-ish indie realms dominated by names like The Postal Service and Death Cab For Cutie.

With regard to new single, 'Face To Face', Talk In Code's guitars are covered in a smooth distortion, compressed heavily; whilst the drums resonate in a space 5 times that of the song, giving the entire mix a strange sense of imbalance. With the focus placed solely on Chris Stevens’ vocals, pushed right to the fore, he often becomes jettisoned at the times where the volume of the instruments that accompany him recoil.

WATCH// 'Face To Face'

The chorus harmonisation's, a major interest point, are akin to an albeit-tamer version of Enter Shikari, circa Take To The Skies, where Rou and Chris’ vocals fuse to provide a versatile, harmonic break from the screams. Here, the higher voice adds depth and variation to the thin vocals, which at times become predictable due to the standardised formation of the song. In regard to the vocals, without the strength in performance found in Take To The Skies, some of the harmonisation's waver against the overproduced accompaniment but they retain interest nonetheless. Whilst not a negative point, the inherent formalism underlying the song removes much of the excitement this song could easily offer if a more experimental mindset was acquired.



Ultimately the song is neither bad nor outstanding, suffering from an acute lack of individuality within a style of music crowded by several big names and a million smaller ones. Electronic inspired Indie-Rock is perhaps too broad and too indistinct, leading to a lack of diversity within it and, whilst Talk In Code make a good effort, ‘Face To Face’ is a restatement of the mould.

'Face To Face' is out now.