Can it be? Will El Paso be the home of the next big thing?
Having a history of producing popular music (anybody heard of Jimi Hendrix?) grunge emerged from Seattle in the eighties. Strung out on coffee and cigarettes and bored as hell because it never stops raining, kids flocked to Mother Love Bone and Mudhoney gigs in large numbers. Next thing you know we have Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden. (And a not too groovy movie with a groovy soundtrack, Singles.)
El Paso, famously has nothing to do as well. Will we have our own music style bust out of the "elpasomusicscene" and take the world by storm? If so we need a catchy name that captures the essence of the movement, like "altercore" or "aural consciousness" or "faster progpunk".
Then every El Paso band can fervently deny that they are part of that movement and despise being labeled. And they will particularly loathe this label.
The very next band to despise that I created a label for them is Devices in Shift. Their demo "Velos Para la Enferma" shows a world of potential. A well constructed effort, this work is a series of fast and heavy artful pieces of guitar driven tunes.
Readers of my column know I love the interplay between two lead instruments and Devices in Shift has cool riffs in spades, typified in "Slit Throat Synchopation" [sic].
"Bleeding Like Icarus" is a great song, and I love the right channel guitar riff that comes in at about 0:10 among other places. But with its raging energy, I would like to see them rewrite the slow part, and transform this tune into an unrelenting driving force. It could be done primarily with an aggressive drum beat throughout. The break-down is a device they use in a number of songs and can be left out of this one song.
The song "Velas Para la Enferma" is beautiful and powerful. It's perfect at the end of the album and makes me take a moment of silence to absorb it. Hey guys, post your lyrics on your website, so I can make them out, all right?
The vocals are solid and with some seasoning should be very powerful. Jaycee Salinas has a bad habit of fading out weakly instead of ending his vocal lines forcefully. I don't think he's running out of breath, it sounds more like he hasn't trained himself to finish. They have put a lot of energy into the programming which should translate into a solid live show.
There is enough going on in these songs to keep the listener from getting bored, and while following the formula of local hard core, have enough fresh ideas to be worth a listen today. And "Velos Para la Enferma" may very well soon be a collectors' item, as Devices in Shift have the potential to be the next band to break out of El Paso.
I'm not quite a fan yet, but could get there.
--The Grouch
