Dunes Phase:Watchers

Title: Dunes Phase

Label: Gern Blandsten

Genre: dance punk

Rating: 5 of 7

Chicago avant-funk artists, the Watchers, return after their first full-length with the promising Dunes Phase EP. I use the word promising because there is a ton of potential in this EP, but it doesn’t quite ever hit its niche. It reminds me a lot of early !!!, they had all of the people in place and the sound developing, but the vocals needed a lot of work and they had not quite perfected their sound. Behind the leadership of keyboardist/singer Michael Guarrine, the Watchers combine dance-punk, funk and garage rock to create a sound that is instrumentally well pulled off, but nothing special, especially because the independent band masses are all playing this sound. I really hope this band sits down and tightens their sound before the next album because much like !!!, the could explode on the scene with a quality record.

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