Pendulum - a comparative review

I've been listening to Hold Your Colour for a while and I've really enjoyed it. This morning (well, it's still late night for me, I guess), I think I figured out what I was into with this band. I think they really could be the band that Infected Mushroom tried to be — and mostly failed to be — with the release of Vicious Delicious.

This isn't to say that Pendulum is a clone of Infected Mushroom. While there are bits and pieces that recall the sort of deep goa-ish techno and house that characterize a lot of Mushroom's earlier work, and the guitars and industrial edge that crept in during Supervisor and Vicious, there's just so much more to listen to.


For one, there are lyrics that actually tell a story and convey a meaning. There's just not much meaning to Mushroom's lyrics, which generally serve as window dressing to the melodies that take center stage. For another, there is usually a brutal bass melody and crunchy synthesizer pieces woven in, giving it a textured and dark mood. And to add to that, breakbeats abound. Who doesn't like breaks? Lastly, perhaps, there are (occasional; it's not overdone) house melodies soaring through a few tracks.


It's kind of like, as a band, Pendulum decided they weren't going to stick to a convenient archetype of electronic music. For that matter, despite its heavily synth-driven feel and obvious use of drum machines, keyboards, et cetera, they have a drummer. There are bona fide instruments in use. Rather, they seem eminently comfortable straddling genres as far apart as Jungle and Pop. This is the kind of music I would really have enjoyed in the mid 90s out in the desert in So Cal. And yet, it still doesn't feel derivative.


I'm super pleased to have come across them, although I'm admittedly pretty late. The sound quality of the below video is pretty poor, apologies. The studio cuts are obscenely well produced.