These Geordie boys have created an epic debut album in the shape of A Certain Trigger. With current single Going Missing and already released singles Graffiti and Apply Some Pressure Maxmio Park have cast their musical rod into the mainstream of British Rock music. And it has made quite a splash!
Maximo Park celebrated the release of current single Going Missing with a performance @ RPM Records in their home town of Newcastle on July 18th. The following day the headed to the capital where they saw the album pick up a MERCURY MUSIC PRIZE nomination! Lead singer paul Smith contemplated winner the award and said that if the band won the £20,000 prize the band would " build a yacht and fly to Rio in it, zooming across the water"! Maxmio Park comprise of Paul Smith (vocals), Duncan Lloyd (guitar), Tom English (drums), Lukas Wooller (keyboards) and Archis Tiku (Bass). Lead singer Paul Smith has been labelled (by NME) as being Britain's strangest new star. According to the weekly newspaper NME have stated that Smith is the sum of Reginald Perrin plus the Hamlet Cigar advert guy (bald man trying to keep his single strand of hair draped across a vast expanse of bare scalp in a photo booth) plus Wyndham Lewis who founded a magazine in the 1920s called BLAST to expound his theories about the Vortex - a mystical symbol which he thought of as a whirlpool of human possibilties. He is also said to be described as the Geordie Morrissey, the combover Jarvis, the last lost romantic!
The album itself is whirlpool of human possibilties (nice one! - Ed) Apply Some Pressure was the first single to be release, and it gives way to the application of weight, not physically but emotionally into a situation where to achieve the desire outcome you may find that by being slightly forceful you can get what you need! Graffiti is the song which for me epitomises the cause! " I'll do Graffiti, if you sing to me in french" Give me the girl from the Nicole/Papa car advert and and a can off spray paint and Im off!!!!
Latest Going Missing starts off in a very sombre mood! Though possible this is to draw you into a realm where you can visual yourself lying down hands crossed on a bed, dreaming, sleeping, dozing, snoozing, or just maybe your stiff as a board, and on the way up to the guy in the sky have lots of regrets on you mind - you should have taken opportunites or chanes when they were presented, this could have led to the possibility of doing something positive!
Postcard Of A Painting is very Smith-esque! You can also see Paul Smith's combover turning Morrissey's quiff in a flash! Juming, bouncing off wall guitar riffs sound like the smith in their prime suddenly being catapulted forward twenty years to come crash landing into your airwaves! The most intrigue song from the album thus far is Limassol. The song intro is sucks you into a Kraftwerk like state. (lets all move around like sliver clad, iron gleaming, juddery moving robots and trying to er jive!) The song has a very strong dymanic 80's feel it. This is enchanced by Buzzcock-esque melodies ( think someone you should fall in love with!)
Acrobat is the most unsual song on the album. A monlogue by Paul Smith culminates in the conclusion that in order to maintain or preserve a friendship or relationship one contributing factor is always knowing what the other person wants or requires. " Never losing sights of your needs " as Smith puts it. The flavour of the song is kicked started by an almost like Kraftwerk beginning. You again get that dance like sensation whirling around the song.
This collection of songs highlights that not only does the whirlpool of human possibilties live, and breath but that everyone around us today has the chance to grab an idea, to make a change, to make a positive decision or stance. Maximo Park have giving us a start, a helping hand to believe in this whirlpool, this vortex which once feeled the universe with fear and dread, now has the opportunity to create changes and deeds that we can take forward and use, to apply to our habits and tasks.
This band also adds to the growing army of musicians and cohorts who are creating a viberant and colour scene " Up North ". Places like Leeds, Manchester, Bolton, Newcastle and Sunderland to name but are a few are producing rock bands by the bucket load and all are tasting the sweet liquer of success! Bring forth and conquer, lay low and bow to these regions. Its no longer grime up north, in fact its the complete opposite, jump onto a train and go up north very quick so that you can be swept away by the vibrant and socially enchanced scene!