U.K. buzz band lights a fire
with sophomore release

Review by Tony Bonyata

On their second full-length album Kick Up The Fire, And Let The Flames Break Loose, the Reading, England-based sextet The Cooper Temple Clause are expanding beyond the techno-metal sound explored on their 2002 U.K. debut See Through This and Leave to include a much broader and varied range of styles.
Trumpeted in the U.K. press as one of the brightest new hopes in music, their unorthodox mixture of indie rock, industrial metal, spacey ambient encounters and even bits of dark jazz and goth might normally make for a convoluted clusterfuck, but The Cooper Temple Clause (a wordy name to say the least, which I'll - for the sake of my blistered fingers and strain on your eyes - simply refer to TCTC hereafter) makes all the genre hopping a satisfying affair.
While their previous metal musings occasionally rears its head here ("Promises Promises" and "Music Box"), TCTC have also turned in big, beautiful arrangements filled with Kraftwerkian techno blips, skittish hip-hop beats and steamy, bedroom vocals ("New Toys" and "The Same Mistakes"). Toss in a vampiric lullaby turned into industrial clangor ("Into My Arms"), a bit of foreboding filler ("In Your Prime") and the epic intergalactic dirge that closes the album ("Written Apology") and its apparent that these guys may actually be onto something with their conglomerated cross-breeding of styles.
Although the U.K. buzz surrounding this band may be a bit premature, TCTC still prove on Kick Up The Fire... that while they may not exactly be burning down the house, they at least have the capacity to start a fire. And that's more that can be said for most.