review - Conquistadors

It’s been a while but Conquistadors are back. The enforced hiatus following vocalist James’s travel round Asia has now come to an end . And that means that the band can now return to the business of the day.

Conquistadors were last seen (by this writer at least) armed with a selection of songs that evaded the traditional reviewer’s labelling system. Part experimental Prog-Rock, part Lo-Fi sound explosion, all of it gloriously noisy, the band are not afraid to play around with new sounds and new ideas.

If anything, they are just afraid of sounding like anyone else. This is no bad thing.

New Music:

The band now have two new tracks available for your listening pleasure: “Bake Your Cake and Eat It” and “Jozef” form the new EP, Rochelle, Rochelle (a reference to a fictional film mentioned in Seinfeld). Both tracks are currently available on the band’s Myspace page.

Opening track, “Bake Your Cake and Eat It” begins as a fast and furious attack on the ears, changing to (slightly) slower and lighter pace in the middle and then plummeting back into a wall of noise for the finale. Oh, and there’s a fantastic short de-tuned piano solo around the two minute ten mark.

As with previous Conquistador offerings, the lyrics are generally indecipherable. I’m assured by a press release that the lyrics concern a tour the band did in 2008 with another band, Shapes.

What Goes on Tour……:

Not that the lack of vocal clarity should concern us too much. The briefest snatches of lyrics (“We’re a perfect disaster”, “I’m not Sparticus” and “A New year we learn - we learn stuff”) add something to the non-sequiturial mystery of the band.

And besides, if you really want to know what happened on tour, you can always read the band’s blogs from the time (where, apparently, they discovered that Harrogate’s Pizza Hut has a height restriction).

Song without Words:

The second track, “Jozef”, taken from guitarist Adam’s middle name, is by the band’s admission a demo of a live track. It’s an instrumental track with voices added for melodic purposes rather than any distinct lyrical content.

The track has a busy bass line with all the other instruments working around it. At times it sounds like a distant relative of Blur’s “Music is my Radar” . Most of the time though it sounds like pure Conquistadors.

With vocalist James back from his travels, the band are looking to roll up their sleeves and keep themselves busy with the release of a further, longer EP and more tours. Catch them if you can. If you like music that’s not afraid to push entire post offices full of envelopes, this could well be the band for you.

Related links:
Conquistadors on Myspace