Album Review: Javelin - No Más

It's unlikely too many albums released this year will prove half as much fun as Javelin's full debut No Más. In fact, unless Goldie Lookin Chain return - and are actually funny this time – we reckon no one’s going to come close. Of course, this won't come as much of a surprise to anyone who caught the Brooklyn duo supporting the mighty Yeasayer around Europe a few months back; when we caught them in Dublin they played an energetic and hyperactive set to a regrettably small crowd. Cousins Tom Van Buskirk and George Langford stick to this approach when putting their samplers, synths, drumpads – and lots more besides – on record, resulting here in fifteen tracks that lurch from one idea to the next and dart across genres at breakneck speed. Thankfully the results are comfortably on the better side of mixed. 

When Javelin do get it right, they're a creative joy. 'Oh! Centra' - pronounced with a soft 'e' by the way - so no, it's not an ode to Ireland’s leading convenience store chain - best exemplifies that imaginative, playful streak: a barrage of Nintendo beats and chipmunk vocals, it never once takes itself terribly seriously, but is seriously good. And that's Javelin all over really. The similarly video game-inspired 'Moscow 1980' recalls Daft Punk, and gets our vote for best song ever written about an Olympic Games (bonus points for the Mishka The Bear reference). Meanwhile, 'Vibrationz', which was first released on last year's Jamz & Jemz collection of demos, rides a hip-hop-meets-chillwave groove to remain just as fresh-sounding almost a year on. 

The pair encounter a little trouble, however, whenever they veer away from the party jam formula and make a beeline towards more sedate territory. ‘Mossy Woodland’’s slow, Go! Teamesque groove just about gets away with it, but elsewhere the frequent changes in pace produce a disjointed feel; brilliant stand-alone slices of glitchy funk like 'C Town' and 'Off My Mind' end up side by side with the likes of 'Intervales Theme' and 'Tell Me, What Will It Be?', both of which are just too jaunty for their own good and end up slowing things down unnecessarily. 

As a result, while the band has come in a full ten songs shorter this time round than the twenty-five tracks that made up Jamz & Jemz, they're still pushing their luck here a little. In truth, No Más comes off more like another collection, albeit a well thought-out and more polished one, than an album per se. But then, would Javelin be half as much fun (did we mention they were fun?!!) if they sat down and decided to make a conventional record? So it's as you were then, gentlemen.