Crystal Ghost – Gear (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

The term “retro” is often used to describe anything remotely reminiscent of what has gone before, but that is to fail to understand that all music is made by standing on the shoulders of giants and that musicians are the products of their influences as much as they are their own ideas. Gear is the perfect example of this idea.

If retro is the tag given to any music trying to sound like the past, Gear is a band powered on by their own sonic story, a long and illustrious story at that, and any nod to the past – their past – only reminds us that they have been making music for a long time.

Of course, “Crystal Ghost” echoes the spirit of Britpop’s past, but only because they were there the first time around. It’s a sound that they helped fashion, as did all bands who formed the loose Britpop/indie scene of the mid-nineties.

But that was then, and this is now, and we find Gear far from merely resting on their laurels and going through the motions unlike some sibling-fronted, Mancunian cash-till ticket scalpers I could mention. No Gear’s story has always been an evolving and forward thinking one. And “Crystal Ghost” is no exception.

Sitting somewhere between the near-balladic and the anthemic, it’s one of those slow-burning builds. It is a song built on weight rather than velocity, poise as well as power, and presence rather than pace. It is a reminder to all indie and rock bands that control and confidence are much more attractive qualities than the undignified rush to get to the end of the song that most bands opt for.

For all its reduced pace, “Crystal Ghosts” is a big song. As it travels, it cocoons itself in swathes of raw melodic guitar and a swagger-some groove, adding sonic textures along the way until it delivers us to a place, via a wonderfully dynamic interlude, of squalling salvos, driving bass lines, powerful beats, and sky-scraping vocals.

Gear doesn’t look to the past, but the past is in their DNA, as it is for all of us. But this is nothing if not a band playing out their second act and doing so from a more worldly, more experienced, more mature place. The first part of their tale might have piqued our interest, but the second part of any story is where the plot thickens and the really exciting stuff happens. Read on…