It would be extremely ignorant and slap-dash to start pelting numerous genres in the hope of amalgamating a tidy-ish, albeit, acutely incoherent over-arching encapsulation of the ‘woolgatheringly-night terror-esque’ formula that Wozniak achieve in a seamlessly, unforced conviction.
Thusly, avoiding pinpointing particular genres by lobbing mice into the proverbial maze (lack of aerial view), this creates allowances to step back and fully scope Wozniak’s abstract and slightly unsettling bath of melodies, which transition effortlessly into an atonal storm of distortedness – providing a steadfast welcoming of sulky understated melodies clutching at, and scarcely – but amply surviving among a mêlée of multi-layered hierarchical ‘battle-of-the-frequencies’ tirade of stringed abuse.
The chorus features a beautifully conflicting, yet melancholic chord that manages to hang disconsonantly over a heinously sharp precipitous; still clinging to a haphazardly, to a strenuously attainable and accessible wall of noise.
Based in Edinburgh, the quartet – named after Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak (yes, the ‘other’ bloke in that successful partnership) – belt out their dreamscaped delayed guitar sounds against a taut drum and bass partnership, juxtaposing a vigorously tight rhythmic section, which confidently contrasts the languished, yet hauntingly spatial and echoic mix of delayed noise, which exudes an existentially phenomenological catharsis.
‘MFMB’ adeptly demonstrates – what Simon (guitarist) describes as “… a wide spectrum of musical loves… [including but certainly not limited to…Ed.] shoegazing, hard rocking, atonally cacophonous, multi-layered post-rock sensibilities”.
In a nutshell, there are myriad influences, as is always the case when individualistic variances of creativity are combined and compelled to battle out singular discrepancies until eventually – there is an aggregated; yet, not always particularly unanimous – set of compromises that have to be made.
It’s a healthy given, considering the band has admitted that the embryonic conception of Wozniak was intrinsically due to their healthy friendships.
Thusly, this is one of the more important and interesting aspects that essentially forges eclecticism into a canonized journey of musical heterogeneity – but in keeping with an implicit underpinning of homogeneity; in other words, the fundamentals of ‘Wozniak’ idiosyncratic identity.
The second song on the double A-side single is ‘New Hampshire’, which is one the very few songs that Wozniak have applied vocals to, and works in favour of the single as being a dichotomous whole of two divides.
The instrumental elements of the song – and moreover; the singing – are reminiscent of early Sparrow and the Workshop, in that the subtleties of the contributing intertwining melodies become incrementally more accessible after each listen; with Sarah’s ethereal vocals creating a complimentary, reverberating layer that rests alongside the buoyantly spacious verses and the vicissitudinously dynamic ‘light-to-heavy-hitting’ drums between the verse and chorus.
It is a great introduction to the band and with new material on the horizon – tentatively circling an April 2014 release – there is definitely a reason to remain enthusiastically interested in Wozniak’s future endeavors.
Words: Derek Robertson
