Beaten By Them play slow-burning post-rock that climaxes in spectacular fashion. The San Francisco/Melbourne five-piece mix standard rock instrumentation with cello and DJ to create a wide palette of sounds. These are built upon as the songs mince forwards, loosely mimicking the loud-soft pattern synonymous with the genre. Where the band bring freshness is in the dynamics, as volumes shift dramatically between sections and motifs. Introduced guitars stick out especially, though perhaps unintentionally. The music is busy at times, and though it never detracts from the songs, it doesn’t add much either. Verge is an exception, though worse for it. The mundane guitar pattern is repeated for three long minutes before the drums kick in, and meander along for another minute. The song then changes character altogether, adopting a funky indie rock riff and a fairly ordinary attempt at rapping about being on the edge. Yangtze is more straight-forward post-rock, and really quite pretty, though nothing mind-blowing. That’s telling, Beaten Have Them have some great ideas, but the songwriting lets them down. The record is replete with interesting parts, but the songs never transcend them. There’s good times here for post-rock fans looking for inspiration, but not enough composition for the rest of us.

JAKEB SMITH

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