WL//WH Album Review Q-7 THREE TIMES
Q73X Band
Last summer (July 1st) we told you (here) about the amazing Swiss post-punk act with the strange name Q-7 Three Times, and how much we were looking forward to a full album by the band after their striking first handful of singles. Οn January 22, 2021, Q7X3 they self-released their bizarre debut album “25 Frames” on vinyl, CD, and digital, and it is an impressive and truly bizarre trip of 10 stations in how they see their art. George Magouras and Alex Huldi have their own original explanation of how cinema can act as a catalyst on a band and how that band can play some of the most iconic characters from movies like i.e. “π – Pi”, “Wild At Heart”, “Dark City”, “Truth And Consequences NM”, “Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas”, and some more. They don’t make soundtracks or do they in their own way?
Except for the music in the room what also dragged my eye was the titles they give to their songs. They don’t give them titles but movie character names except for the songs “Wednesday Karma”, “Lesedi La Rona” (which is the name of the rarest diamond one can find – for a song that is dedicated to a loving person who is gone), and “Dr. D. P. Schroeber” that was written in April 2019, at the beginning of the Hong Kong protests and is dedicated to all the people who raise their voices and take a stand for justice, equal rights and humanity. That was what the band told me when I asked, and I must say that all things Q7X3 took on another meaning after that.
Alex Huldi is not trying to explain these characters in his lyrics, he is not their judge or animator, but he writes lyrics as an observer of their crimes and passions on the screen in an urban poetic way. Sometimes strictly and other times like rewarding them through the microphone he puts his own questions to the movies. I won’t tell you which song is from which movie as it is a funny game for you to find out, but tell me, the names of Johnny Favorite, Aloysius Christopher Parker, Addy Monroe, Maximilian Cohen, Harry Grey, Brother Justin Crowe, or Savage Henry, don’t ring a bell? They are all characters from these movies I was telling you before, and the 7/10 of the tracklist of their debut “25 Frames” LP.
On the other hand, all music is written & produced by George Magouras who also played electronics, guitars, bass, and the beats. The result of the collaboration of the two artists is the great adventure they had in structuring their own post-punk music with the related styles of also coldwave, and Batcave (not a music style but as the same term defines restlessness and the subversion of music “styles” too). You will also hear wide use of synths with all these coming together with very compact sounding in a unique production, and the band’s endeavor is absolutely successful. Q7X3 are ready I guess to become the next shake of the modern post-punk universe. They are fresh, they play good, they make nice songs to stick to, and they let their brilliant idea become the star they fearlessly follow! From me, it is a total YES with loud applauds too, we need such bands!!!
Keep Up With Q7X3:
Q7X3 Band
Written by Loud Cities’ Mike
