Qualia

Qualia sounds like a pretty mediocre band….and then you learn that they are each only between ages 14 and 16. Suddenly, a couple of things make sense, and you can forgive them for a few of their missteps.

For example, ‘G2K’ has a surprisingly dark sound that seems pretty promising, though by the time you’re into it, you can’t help but feel that the song would be better after a little bit of thinning out; that dark stuff begins to feel a little heavy as the boys slab on pounding drums and a whole lot of guitars with increased intensity as they go, and a guitar solo later on overlapped with “oh”s are not helping the cause. ‘Goldfish’ reminds you just how young they are, with lyrics (not surprisingly) about a goldfish, and their use of counting in the chorus. ‘Goldfish’ is a bit simpler than ‘G2K’as it slightly more garage-rock influenced, and the goofiness of it all is a bit endearing in the end, whether or not their intent was to be goofy.

Qualia’s sound is noisy British rock, and while some may not be willing to give another noisy British rock band a chance, you may enjoy some of what they have to offer; Danny Lowney, who also serves as guitarist, has pretty good pipes, and at times are combined just right with the band’s other elements to crank out an energy truly reflecting their youth. They also have a healthy amount of attitude that may seem ridiculous when displayed by other youngsters, but Qualia is able to pull it off. After all, it should be said that these guys handle their instruments well.

Qualia isn’t exactly serving up anything new; still, they have a together sound and some good ideas that we can only expect them to build upon for many years. Does the fact that they’re young make this music good? Maybe, maybe not; it really depends on what kind of music listener you are. At any rate, give their tracks a listen, if for no other reason than to be able to say a bit down the road that you were on the Qualia bandwagon before they got big.

Qualia (myspace)