Alto Heceta/Speed of Sauce - split EP
(Synaptic Tactic)
Here's a split EP from two Midwestern bands who seem technically proficient enough but are completely unable to write an interesting song. Alto Heceta is queued up first and play Midwestern rock. However, while the music might be adequate, the vocals are of the standard screamo-emo sort--off key and unappealing--that totally ruin the sound of the band. Speed of Sauce are a bit more ambitious, mixing harder rock sections with quiet, bare parts centered on the vocals.
Both bands suffer from the same disease: post-emo Radiohead disorder. Yeah, these guys were all probably in local emo favorites, but then when the emo kids all grew up, the only place they knew to look was to Radiohead, so to Radiohead they looked. Of the two, Alto Heceta still seems to be more wrapped up in emo. They scream a little, then do some Yorke-ian whining a little--the vocals are so bad, it's near impossible to tell what the music underneath is, like trying to read a book with a bright light directed at your retinas. When the singer finally shuts up at the end of "So September," the music is actually quite nice, soft and drifting but still powerful, however, the other two Alto Heceta songs seem to be just as emo as the vocals. Speed of Sauce, on the other hand, needs to get off the Radiohead now. Really, from the faux British accent to the unnecessary techno beats, there's no excuse for copying another band so blatantly. The band's third and final song is less Radiohead influenced; however, it is unlistenable--the guitarist playing at a rhythm that simply doesn't mesh with the tediously plodding vocals (at least the Radiohead-style songs were pleasant, albeit uninterestingly pleasant).
Don't give either of these bands your time. They've both got a decent sound, but if this EP is any indication, they don't have a decent song idea between them... at least not one they didn't steal from someone else.
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