New Music: Sleigh Bells

I am going to start writing reviews of new bands, albums, and other music that I find interesting.  Here is my first installment: Sleigh Bells!

     From the very first track on Treats, Brooklyn band, Sleigh Bells is announcing their arrival onto the music scene and making sure that they are heard.  The siren-like guitar clears the way for the duo, Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss to bring something new to the table.  Sleigh Bells probably sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard before.  Most of the songs do not have much of a harmonic structure to them at all.  They mainly consist of guitar riffs inspired by Miller’s days in a post-hardcore, electronic bass-rattling drumbeats and calm with a little bit of edge vocals by Krauss.  This 2010 freshman album off of M.I.A.’s label N.E.E.T. is looking like it may give Brooklyn something else to be proud of.

     The songs have a very repetitive nature to them.  Most of the tracks are made up of two or three different patterns of guitar line and vocal melody.  This does not become annoying though because most of the tracks are pretty short, coming in under the three-minute mark.  All the melodies are very simple and clean, sung without much vocal spectacles (don’t expect any collaborations with Regina Spektor anytime soon).  All the showing off is left to the music which is as much of a focus as the vocals if not more during the majority of the album.  Miller seems to be using clipping as an extra instrument.  His mentality about levels must be something like, “The more bars in the red, the better.”  That is everything except the vocals (well… not always). These ingredients of sandpaper guitar, natural vocals and heavy beats are what make Sleigh Bells’ unique, high-contrast sound.

     Now don’t go expecting any deep lyrics from this band.  The most lyrical song on the album, as well as the most harmonic, “Rill Rill” uses a sample to give the guitar a rest and the vocals a highlight. This also happens to be the longest track on the album.  There is no distinguishable meaning to me behind except the literal behind lines like “I wonder what you boyfriend things about your braces/ What about them/ I’m all about them.”  Though there is nothing very exciting about the vocals on the album, they are solid.  Never does she waver or show weak spots.  Since the two met in Brooklyn, though both originally hail from Southern Florida, Miller had already written all of the songs and was in search for a vocalist.  It will be very interesting to see what happens to the songs when Krauss is included in the creative process.