*SHELS
"SEA OF THE DYING DHOW"
(Shelsmusic)

Album REVIEW

01. THE CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS (9:17) MYSPACE
02. INDIAN (4:44)
03. THE WHITE UMBRELLA INTO (1:57)
04. THE WHITE UMBRELLA (8:46)
05. WATER INTRO (3:30)
06. SEA OF THE DYING DHOW (6:24) MYSPACE
07. ATOLL (0:48)
08. THE KILLING TENT (4:22)
09. INDIAN2 (2:44)
10. RETURN TO GULU (6:20)
11. IN DEAD PALM FIELDS (10:58)

Length:  58:50 (min:secs)
Released: 18th June, 2007

www.shelsmusic.com
medi@shelsmusic.com

Line-up: 
Mehdi Safa [Vocals]
Tom Harriman [Drums]
Simon Maine [Guitar]
Green Dave [Guitar]
Phil Maine [Guitar]
Red Dave [Bass Guitar]
Ed Matthews [Atmospherics]

[ BACK ]   [ MAIN ]

For those that need a whistle stop introduction, *shels (on this occasion) are constructed from past members of Mahomodo, Fireapple Red and Eden Maine, and they are undoubtedly here to deliver something sweet to savour.

Here, they mature with a greater gentleness, re-stamping a distinctive signature and with a monumental debut album, writing songs that are the vessel to sail you away across an eastern ocean on a rich sea of sounds. This time with a tempering of the intensity and with more of a Californian candescence, they hand over a symphonic quality of melody and rhythm that moves synchronously together, like the wind moving a vast desert of  sand, shaping and reshaping into a picture that fits the frame.

Getting carried away on the ambience is stopped only by the end of the song and there are brief moments of downtuned heaviness, but this really isn’t what it’s about, it’s much more about celebrating the depth and the detail. This is more than just taking a journey (and boy do they take you on a trip), but really it’s about noticing the vast amounts of beauty that you see along the way.

Making acquaintance with the subtle use of heaviness and the greater use of melodic vocals, it sweeps you away with the heavier passages and creates an extraordinary feeling of measured intensity. Don’t necessary expect to be taken to the destination of your choice, but please believe me *shells will take you to much more exotic places than you've ever experienced before.  For fucks sake, book you’re ticket NOW!

12345678910 - Rigsby  (13th November, 2007)
www.iwillbeheard.co.uk