ninetails
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ninetails

Liverpool, England, United Kingdom | INDIE

Liverpool, England, United Kingdom | INDIE
Band Alternative Rock

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This band has not uploaded any videos

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"3 songs is a bit cruel, as there’s a lot of ideas that Ninetails cram around. Let’s hope they release something longer next time around after whetting your appetite with this. And if you’re the person who leaked this EP, fuck you for taking away the work "

The over-excitedness (!) of opening a gift you’ve been waiting for at Crimbo can only end up in two different ways: one, you get a nice toy you’ll go around and play with until it breaks or gets taken by the local bully or two, you get something you didn’t expect under the warning that if you got the present you wanted, you’d end up shooting your eye out.

Grim, but true, readers.

Ninetails short but sweet EP, Ghost ride the whip is not like a Christmas present, but the more interesting parts of it. The bubblewrap, the wrapping paper, the little coated pieces of wire, the cardboard box. Anything that fuelled your imagination more than the slightly limited range the toy/device/gadget you got for it.

So, with only three songs, these math-poppers take all that flotsam and jetsam and arm themselves a fort. A fort of hope, foot tapping stuff and upbeat moods. A lot of fingerpicking and a solid rhythm section helped too. ‘I.F.’ kicks the EP with a droning riff holding the hands of a drumbeat while the bass just jumps around, laying (cardboard) bricks for this fortification. “Infinite forever” is the refrain that the band members chant, so instead of whistling while their work (like their dwarfish counterparts), they go mantra on us.

No fortification would be complete without a flag with a shiny motherfuckin’ rad flag, and that’s ‘Pedestrian’. Ideas are hardly re-used and the mood goes from integral calculus and second derivatives to 80's XTC tapes mangled inside a blender (yes, it blends). The several changes in moods with mostly vocals are a good place to catch your breath.

“Chuckleworthy” would be the first thing that would come to mind after reading the title for the third and final track, ‘Social Guestwork’. The bassline is no laughing matter, going for a groove that goes reggae for a few seconds, then a bit jazz. It’s the more relaxed song of the EP (well, for the most part) but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a haymaker hiding in the instrumental ending.

3 songs is a bit cruel, as there’s a lot of ideas that Ninetails cram around. Let’s hope they release something longer next time around after whetting your appetite with this. And if you’re the person who leaked this EP, fuck you for taking away the work of three honest musicians. - Sloucher


""All in all, this debut record gives a very accomplished and promising account of themselves""

Freshly formed quartet Ninetails began life together by mulling over their shared appreciation of the sort of math-rock and indie that spanned from the likes of Tubelord to more further adrift acts, such as Metamusic. Further to this, many of the members came from a background based in a variety of older bands or performing arts establishments in the North-West. All of this means that upon their formation, they already had a very clear and distinct objective in mind, they certainly haven’t had to spend too much time deliberating over their approach or sound.
Ghost Ride the Whip is a brief 3-track record that goes some way into putting down the basis of this intent and demonstrates the variation they may well just need to stick out from the crowd. The opening, and indeed flagship, track ‘I.F’ (Infinite Forever) begins with a bright and sweetly constructed guitar part that immediately brings a very apparent shade of Battles to the fore, before expanding into a
much bigger and slightly rockier instrumental sound. Despite consisting of a solid three minutes of length, this track rapidly interchanges between rhythms and tones that leave a quite brisk impression on the listener. However, the band do well to slip it seamlessly into track two, ‘Pedestrian’, a title that appears to mock the song’s delicate beginning. In truth though, it is arguably the most accomplished song on the record, the way in which the guitar parts intertwine and grow with each other in between harder and softer sections of the song demonstrates not just the variation that the band possess, but the exceptional musicianship that they all have at their finger tips. The vocals of Ed Black properly come to the fore in this track also, but never overbear or diminish the integrity of their instrumental focus, due to the competency with which the two are constructed in unison.
The record closes with ‘Social Guesswork’, a song built with a more stylistically bluesy kind of tone, accentuated by the vocals, a perhaps more tell-tale sign of the eclectic musical taste that the band members all share.

All in all, this debut record gives a very accomplished and promising account of themselves, but it is yet to be seen precisely what unique qualities they bring to the table yet, given the many explorations into this sound that British independent music has witnessed over the last few years.

- godisinthetvzine


"'if they come up with 10 tracks as good as “I.F.”, then they’ll be on the verge of something like world conquering.'"

Superstar Destroyer search towards the Mersey for a much needed top up of new logarithmical music. The quartet that is Ninetails, present a trio of nicely balanced and well thought out songs, and their opener “I.F.” is a sharp, echoey number, conjuring up a cheeky reference to Vampire Weekend but hewn into much more substantial chunks of verve and an altogether more intellectual brand of analytical post rock. The off kilter timings and soft, crumbling mix of jangle and hinted distortion, allows a greater degree of finesse than many of their ilk. “Pedestrian” predictably (or not) adopts a more considered pace, delivered by more clean, trebly guitar notes and funky bass lines. “Social Guesswork” almost, just almost, tries to recapture some lost ground but isn’t quite as clever as that first, refreshing number, instead settling on more of an indie rock orientated outlook. It’s one track too far – a simple single release with the first and last track would have been more fulfilling in a-less-is-more kind of fashion. There’s without doubt more to come and if they come up with 10 tracks as good as “I.F.”, then they’ll be on the verge of something like world conquering. - www.manchestermusic.co.uk


Discography

'Ghost Ride the Whip' released 10/10/2011 on Superstar Destroyer Records (SSDCD06)
http://superstardestroyer.bandcamp.com/album/ghost-ride-the-whip

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Bio

Hailing from Liverpool, Ninetails have a formation story that'd perhaps be more apt were it 1988 and Seattle; they met and hung out over cups of coffee, playing each other their favourite bands from Walkmen to kill time.

"It was our music taste that brought us together. They had the best iPods and didn't cite the fucking Red Hot Chilli Peppers as an influence. We bonded over Tubelord, decided to jam and the rest is history" says bassist/lyricist Phil when asked about that time. From such an inauspicious start, it's perhaps surprising that Ninetails should have found their trademark sound so easily and apparently painlessly. For anyone listening to their début, Ghost Ride the Whip, this is surely the sound of a band that have taken time and effort to develop; then again, they might just have special musical chemistry that belies their comparatively recent formation.

Though their sound is very much guitar-oriented, their influences are somewhat more diverse; "Jake's a massive fan of the Deftones, [while] Jordan's got the most eclectic taste, a lot of jazz and some techno... but we'll break him out of that," explains Phil, "Ed's been in a bunch of bands, and his old one supported Good Shoes a couple of times." Phil, of course, is the often outspoken driving force behind electronic mathniks Metamusic, now a growing force on the North West live scene.

So what can we expect from Ninetails?

"It's difficult not to bring the 'taboo' word into the game... right now we've got time and resources [a couple of band members attend LIPA]; when you've got a twenty-four-hour recording studio and practice room across the road from you, I guess you could expect big things. Ideally we'd like to hit the ground running, and I'd like to think with the quality of the music we've got to offer we can land on our feet."