Maeven

Doctor Stallone

Self-released. 2006

By Alissa Ordabai
(SugarBuzz London)

Of all rock genres, glam is the one where girl bands have historically been most successful. From the Runaways and Cradle to Vixen and Precious Metal, women have fitted particularly well into the genre that has sleek, glitzy sensuality at its core. In the case of Maeven, the up-and-coming glam rock band from Sheffield, UK, appearances, even though striking, are still not as important as their musical ability. Their self-released debut “Dr. Stallone”, which came out in late 2006, is a testimony to that.

The record starts with “Wrestling”, an intense, raw-edged song where defiant lead guitar answers the title’s challenge with stylish concentration, and we get the first taste of the band’s spare harmonic sensibility that will continue throughout the album. This song is instilled with echoes of 1980s LA glam metal, but offers a simpler, plainer version of the style, often sounding so minimal that it teeters on the edge of punk. Singer Becca Towler makes a deliberate statement out of her little voice making it sound rebelliously brave wrapped around the basic, but effective melody, adding to the determination with which this band focuses on harmonic and melodic simplicity. On the other hand, this album will surprise you song after song by how these musicians always manage to avoid monotony and gratuitous repetition that seem to be almost unavoidable in punk.

The track that follows, “Red Light District”, starts with a bouncy guitar riff leading to the verse sung with brisk, resolute vehemence. The song showcases the band’s lead guitarist Dalle Towler as an intelligent and thoughtful player who prefers expressive phrasing and emotional candour to wanton demonstrations of bare technique. While the band’s songwriting references such 1980s bands as LA Guns and Faster Pussycat, Dalle is a musician who digs deeper and wider, giving Maeven’s music extra dimension with allusions of some of the 1970s guitar greats like Jimmy Page and Michael Schenker.

“Innovation” is another track which shows that Dalle is serious enough about her craft to not only have listened to what was going on in rock before 1983 (unlike a lot of her rather short-sighted peers) but to have actually taken away and incorporated into her playing a lot of what rock guitar history has to offer.

There are many great songs on this album, each of them offering something new and fresh, making it difficult to pick the tracks that really stand out, but “Iconoclast” and “City Street Sinner” are probably the most obvious highlights of this record. On “Iconoclast” the deliberate and elegant vacuity of Becca’s voice is contrasted by a powerful riff and a vigorous rhythm section, pitting the low and the high ends of the sonic spectrum against each other with brilliant results, and making you realize that this band has much more skill for structuring and arranging a song than they choose to reveal at first. “City Street Sinner” boasts great stairstep guitar figures set against a propulsive beat, and the rhythm section breaks create suspension adding extra drama to this frantic track, showing that this band’s songwriting can be not only clever, but versatile as well.

The album’s cluttered mix reveals hectic recording activity, but Maeven have been heard talking about re-recording this album. There is some first-record rigidity to this debut, but it is still a good demonstration of Maeven’s distinct style and a sense of purpose.

Unlike the majority of the male bands on the UK glam rock scene, Maeven don’t assume the heroic poses and don’t try to seduce the listeners with vague and doubtful depictions of a larger or fuller life. Instead they simply give a candid description of their own life as it really is, telling great stories about what it’s like to be young, talented and ambitious in a modern British city. This band is updating the standards, but at the same time they have managed to develop a sound that is very much their own.

Having already toured on the other side of the water and played such iconic venues as the Whiskey and the Roxy in L.A., Maeven do seem to have what it takes for transatlantic success. It’s just that today in this business things more than ever depend on luck in addition to artistic merit.

http://www.maeven.co.uk/home/

http://www.myspace.com/maevenmusic

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