November Bees

November Bees

​In a Dissonant Light
self-released; 2018

3.9 out of 5

The band November Bees began around 2016 as a solo vehicle for the singer and songwriter Mark Van Vasey. During his time performing he met bassist Rob Conn who he began to gig with around Bristol, UK. They then invited drummer Steve Dew to play with them and they became the trio that they are today. The songs they worked on eventually became their latest record In a Dissonant Light.

In a Dissonant Light lives up to its title as far as the songs go. If there is any light in any of these songs it is very grey or hard to sleep, but more often than not, completely absent. The opening track “The Sky Hangs Heavy” has a sort of dark pop vibe to it that reminded me of the National, as did Vasey’s dark and somber vocals which have that sort of drone and drip to them. But there is a punchy piano here that really adds to the song and makes it pretty catchy for such a morbid song, which is funny too because the next song, “Slaughter House” has this sort of fun and poppy hue to it despite its name. There’s a pretty slinky guitar solo on it too which kind of sounded a little bit like a band saw.

The band calls on a bit of Morissey-like sympathy on the track “So Far From Me” which is pretty disturbing sounding at times. But it again has this stripped down but dirty echo of rock and even reminded me a little bit of Joy Division but just turned down a little.

There are some things here that didn’t work so well for me in the way that they seemed a little too stripped down however. I’m thinking of the song “Smile” which sounds like a wandering demo driven by a pithy sounding piano combined with a sort of love poem lyricism. But the band more than makes up for it on the impressive “Near Then and Gone Again” which I thought was probably the most powerful song on this record as far as a conveyance of real emotion.

​All in all In a Dissonant Light has more than a few standout tracks of stripped down rock n’ roll that doesn’t really try to go over the top. In its subtly is its power. I think as the band starts to work on new tracks that they all write together their sound will become tighter.

By Jamie Robash
​ - Divide and Conquer. By Jamie Robash ​