run003
the reverse - "a clean incision" cd ep
out now.

the reverse's debut ep "proper", is four tracks charting the highs and lows (well mostly the lows actually) of love to a soundtrack of house of love, bunnymen, chameleons and lloyd cole. determinedly english sounding guitar music for those who prefer their music with the lights down low and a bottle of rum for company.

burning world featured the lead track "carry the light" on its 14th podcast.

reviews

Really digging this CD single 'A Clean Incision' by THE REVERSE. It's not normally my thing particularly as it's old skool clean cut indie guitar stuff ala prime House of Love or early Coldplay. But 'Carry the Light' has its hooks in me within seconds & the words graceful, mature & passionate don't even do it justice. The 4 songs herein are just really, really good & quietly striking, with an impressive epic feel (without being "stadium", "bedwetting" or "wanky" in the slightest) I'd even go so far as to say there's a definite air of class surrounding this lovelorn anthemic 4 piece from London. They've been going 6 years, let's hope the next six bring them the fame that should surely be theirs. On digipak CD through Runout, the label that introduced the alarmingly conflicting Sarandon.
norman

It’s really wonderful to know that The Reverse are still with us. tasty favourites of yesteryear, this is a band who have continually made quality darkpop music, with the emphasis on song writing rather than haircuts and clothes from Top Shop on Oxford Street.
‘Carry the Light’ carries on this tradition. Sparse in arrangement, but always slick and tense, that’s The Reverse, and that’s what’s carried on throughout this most enjoyable ep.
In times when style is winning the conker match over substance, The Reverse have been pickled in vinegar and then stuck under the grill for half an hour. Oh yes.
tasty

The last London band I reviewed was Modern American Science and they were really good. The only reason I mention that is there hasn’t been a London sound in my lifetime and yet the closest sound to The Reverse is their fellow Londoners. This band plays Intensively melodic songs with some really nice guitar that almost touches on an English equivalent of alt-country.
The opening track, Carry The Lights, has the wonderful line “the last time that I came was alone inside my room”. The music is varied and inventive and the singing is very fine. On the next track Secrets (that provides the line A Clean Incision), the Voice comes into full effect when it drops an octave or so for certain phrases. Don’t Take My Love Away is a total Turkey that can only be compared to The Boomtown Rats - enough said. They finish off with In A Cage, Under The Ground and get straight back to form with a song that is constructed to charm and entice you into a world of emotional turmoil.
A beautiful record.
a cool noise

The Reverse show-case their own unique blend of indie pop on the forthcoming ‘A Clean Incision’ ep. Taking a cue from The Stone Roses, The Cure and Pavement; ‘A Clean Incision’ wraps you up in a duvet of understanding and reassurance. Intelligent, considered and bittersweet it’s as OK to feel down about things as it is equally to  feel happy about them. A night time car journey through the city of an ep that should guarantee The Reverse go all the way in the right direction.
gigwise

A Clean Incision is the official debut release from The Reverse. This North London based band formed in 2000, and have previously released one limited album and appeared on several compilations. The lyrics detail stories of love and romance, and rather fittingly, the lead vocals carry a mournful, yet romantic elegance, almost lending to the style of Morrissey. The instrumentation is a very uplifting and melodic affair with chiming guitars and beautiful textures - drawing huge similarities with the intense post-rock sound of Mogwai. The only downfall (albeit a slight one) is there isn't a great deal of diversity between the four songs on this EP, with almost identical tones, textures and subject matter used track to track, but The Reverse are a band with a great deal of promise, and with another couple of EPs scheduled for release in the not too distant future, it will be interesting to see what they come up with next.
3.5/5 leeds music scene

N: A North London quartet, who it is said shades of The House of Love, Bright Eyes, The Cure et al may be heard. Well sure, the band's sound is distinctly familiar, or perhaps best described as like bumping into an old friend, as influences may have been derived from those artists, but The Reverse have interpreted this beautifully in what is a very compelling EP, a collection of 4 well written songs.
T: Oh dear. Party pooper Tone strikes again. This sounds to me mostly like someone plodding wearily to the shops on a Sunday morning to buy a bottle of milk. Aside from the seemingly continual need to make the songs marginally more exciting three quarters of the way through, I found little in this ep to cherish. The bands and artists mentioned before all had that extra something that gave you a real sense of depth and they portrayed an intense emotional quality in their songs. For me, The Reverse do not.
N: We appear totally at odds here, and I will concede that track three, "Don't Take My Love Away" would have benefitted from a shot in the arm; however on the whole, I found these songs engrossing, and certainly worthy of further inspection.
T: This is evidently another of those "like Marmite" moments. I'm not saying this is a poor band - not by any stretch of the imagination - but it's just that it bored the crap out of me.
N: Perhaps it is you that would benefit from a shot in the arm. I look forward to hearing an album from the group, if only to hear whether this might have the ability to convert the cynic in our mass.
6/10 atomic duster

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secrets