Errors - Have Some Faith In Magic

If prizes were awarded for lazy references by association than the actual commodity itself, Errors would run away with first place every time. Formed in Glasgow and discovered by that city's own rock royalty Mogwai, who promptly signed them to their Rock Action label, it seems as though the 'post-rock' tag will stay attached to Errors until their dying day. Which is basically the equivalent of stating all French people wear Breton jumpers and munch garlic. Xenophobic assumptions aside, its ill-advised, uneducated comments such as these that create an unwelcome disservice to the affected communities concerned, and in the case of Errors, it appears their largely instrumental based pieces have attracted that label as much as the kinship they share with the musicians that run their label.

Yet, listen to just the tiniest snippet of their music and you'd be forgiven for thinking rave culture had re-enacted itself in a tiny suburb of Glasgow. Musically owing more to the more experimental bands on Warp Records such as Boards Of Canada or Autechre, not to mention fusing math rock time sequences with a dancefloor mentality a la Battles, its difficult to envisage how anyone with a fully operative set of ears and briefest knowledge of post-rock's historical lineage could depict Errors as being one and the same.

Whereas the band's first two long players 'It's Not Something But It Is Like Whatever' and 'Come Down With Me' both hinted at a band still in the process of defining their own sound, 'Have Some Faith In Magic' heralds the fulfilment of a decade's worth of hard graft and endeavour. Introduced by the floating keyboards and haughty guitars of 'Tusk', there's more in common here with Foals were Yannis Philippakis and co. to cover Dire Straits 'Money For Nothing'. Better still; imagine Kraftwerk using real instruments rather than computers, all the while firmly entrenched in making people dance rather than punch the air in testosterone fuelled machismo. As starting points go its an exemplary opener.

The influence of the Dusseldorf electronic pioneers reigns supreme throughout 'Magna Encarta', its pensive intro making way for a cavalcade of furious beats married to a breezy chorus of warped keys. Almost mid-1970s European sounding in its delivery, there's a subtle element of Battles post-Tyundai Braxton output in its make-up. 'Blank Media' represents another first for Errors in the band's use of vocals. Not that anyone is likely to be singing along, the heavily distorted and effects-laden Gregorian style chants proving largely indecipherable lyrically.

Lead single 'Pleasure Palaces' swallows Factory Floor's desolate industrial disco platter whole, giving it an office block makeover, glass ceilings and all. The ferocious melange of techno and complex guitar passages continue into 'The Knock', its laidback first half providing a 'calm before the storm' interlude as it slowly builds in the latter stages to a magnified beast of gigantic proportions.

Better still is 'Earthscore', arguably the highlight of 'Have Some Faith In Magic', which kind of speaks volumes bearing in mind there's little in the way of disappointments here. Wasp synths hold court with distorted vocals eerily reminiscent of the late, lamented Add N To (X), Stephen Livingstone and Simon Ward seemingly engaging in a keyboard dual propelled by James Hamilton's aggressive drumming in the foreground. 'Cloud Chamber' meanwhile rewrites Harold Faltermeyer's script for Axel Foley, again opting to convey its lyrical messages via a combination of effects pedals that ends up sounding like M83 in transit.

While hardly the epitome of cool, Mike Oldfield's 'Tubular Bells' seems to be the inspiration for the penultimate burst of energy that is 'Barton Spring'. Harps flutter, drums clatter, and bells chime as synths blend in effervescently to make a dazzling melting pot of dramatic widescreen techno. By the time 'Holus-Bolus' brings 'Have Some Faith In Magic' to a quite spectacular climax, its final sixty seconds depicting a fanfare usual reserved for coronations and such like, Errors have already announced their arrival as a major force to be reckoned with in style. All Mogwai connections aside, 'Have Some Faith In Magic' is a flawless collection that genre completists would be better served labelling 'post-everything', as it quite simply sounds like nothing else on earth, either past, present or otherwise.

4/5

Dom Gourlay