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Having spent several years struggling for the slightest scrap of recognition beyond their own postal district, they simply sent a demo tape to one of the world's coolest, most successful Producers (whose credits include such rock n roll luminaries as Amen, Slipknot, Rage Against The Machine and At The Drive-In), and were soon signed to one of the world's biggest record companies. But whether or not they're the first English proteges of Ross Robinson's Virgin-imprint, I Am Records, doesn't seem to matter; The Kids are well up for their visceral pop songs from the opening sample: 'Do You Like Fucking?' They exist in that particularly modern dichotomy, where expansive, crashing guitars clash seamlessly with electronic beats and keyboards, and melancholic vocals; and where the organic and synthesised, the tender and vicious, create an absolutely essential whole. It has been described as 'Silverchair remixed by The Prodigy'. Witness the huge bouncing riff and pulsing electro signal of 'Tired', and 'Dermo's twisted metallic drone. Yet, above all, it is a pop music of sorts, and for all its underground origins, there is an accessibility which transcends niche extremism to set it very much apart from stereotypical Ross Robinson fare. Tellingly, melody is never forsaken for heaviness. For all the expectation that will be heaped upon these shoulders, there is an obvious confidence about their set, borne of faith in the one thing in their lives that hasn't changed: the music. But as the closing wall of searing techno-rock feedback subsides on 'Fast Cars', Vex Red realise that the hard bit has only just begun; two solid years of touring and recording lie ahead of them, during which every bit of their personality will be thoroughly tested, analysed and pulled apart. What they make of that time is entirely up to them now. And the early signs are very promising. Steve |