Stew CD
It is a truth universally acknowledged: life is about balance. The duality of light and shade; the interior and the exterior; the social and the personal. Thesis, anthesis and, perhaps, eventual synthesis.
For twin brothers and creative foils Zak and Kel Pinchin, the understanding of that polarity is a lifetime in the making, on their band Modern Error’s debut album ‘Victim Of A Modern Age’ it is both a powerful provocation and the heart of a central question about the way in which we live our lives.
The 14 track LP is almost dizzying in scope. In its first act, or ‘Oeuvre I’, the soaring choruses of songs like ‘Error Of The World’ and ‘A Vital Sign’ vibrate with lush, widescreen power – though never at the expense of intriguingly picked melodic choices or bone-rattling guitar breaks. These are songs unabashedly designed to fill the biggest rooms one could possibly imagine.
And with ‘… Modern Age’ an impression is certainly what they have made. After all, theirs is a narrative that self-evidently and unashamedly draws from a rich vein of bigger-picture thinkers: encompassing the cinematic work of Kubrick and Aaronofsky, the philosophical cut and thrust of Nietzsche and beyond. An all-to-rare commitment to the idea that art can stand for something bigger than itself. Combine that with a superlative blend of stadium-bothering rock and post-punk abrasiveness and it is clear that Modern Error are, in almost every conceivable way, a band tailor made for our times.