Review Summary: One of the most innovative and fresh releases of British rock.
Soothing vocals and dark melodies melt together in one of the best albums English rock has ever produced. But let's do a bit of introduction. The man behind this genius album is Terry Abbott, who began his musical journey back in the mid 90's with Mushroom, a grungey band now vanished in the past, and later he gained some recognition with Vex Red, who released an excelent debut in 2002.
In 2003, Vex Red were done. Starting Septembre (with Jim Lee from Mindwire and Sammy Lee, who has played in almost every Surrey's local band) Abbott refused the easy way (Vex Red could have been huge and known worldwide with a solid sophomore album) and left off the distintive electronics, with a bright, yet rockier sound reminiscent of what Silverchair did back in the day.
The EP starts off with a powerful, energic song called "I Am Weightless". Short, with a bit progressive structure and definitely a song with real attitude. Leaving aside that sort of punk-rock feel, the next song, "Always", could be considered the most well-written track on the album. With this one you will already realize that Septembre didn't cared about the standard song structure, which make the tunes a lot more attractive and surprising.
So after an epic ending that maybe will remind you of Silverchair's "Without You", "Happy" starts with its upbeat, catchy riff that probably will not be the best the band produced but it gives the EP an even more variated sound.
Finally, "(Face)" closes the EP with its ethereal melodies, preparing you for what it had to come. Unfortunately, this was the only Septembre official release. You have to go deep and explore the internet to find other songs and demos that were floating around when the band still existed to know a bit more about their sound.
Rule 3: Conceal Your Intentions is a great prologue, but even as an EP is a lot better than anything the vast majority of modern rock bands put out nowadays. Maybe the lyrics are not the strongest point of the album, but everything feels so magical, fresh and energic that you could put it on repeat for hours.
Definitely, another example of how powerful the Farnborough/Aldershot scene was. Shame that everything is all gone now and it will not come back.
