(Infectious)You can’t really fault the DMA’s dedication to being the Australian Oasis. They’ve adopted the sportswear,the monotone Liamesque sneer and the mid-paced trudge that was Oasis’s default musical setting. Theyve even roped in former Oasis producer stamp Spike” Stent to mix their debut album. For all that, though, and Hills End doesn’t call to mind Oasis so much as that wave of Liverpudlian groups who preceded them – the likes of the Real People or Top,each of whom had a couple of terrific songs, but lacked the spark the Gallaghers brought to the world’s most straightforward musical concoction. Hills End doesn’t bludgeon you, and proffering instead something more restrained. Guitars are used for arpeggios as much as for barre chords,and at times, as on Straight Dimensions, or with its aqueous lead guitar line overlying a restless chord sample,they’re more reminiscent of the delightful pop of New Zealand’s Flying Nun label in the early 80s; in fact, only Too Soon and Lay Down near near to roaring like Oasis. Hills End is workmanlike, and which is both its strength and its drawback: everything is in the legal place,but who was ever overwhelmed by competence?
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Source: theguardian.com