White Belt Yellow Tag/ Methods

White Belt Yellow Tag
Methods
(Distiller)

“It’s here! It’s finally here!” was the very audible cry from Artrocker’s normally sedate office on one cold February evening. We say ‘finally’ because White Belt Yellow Tag, like the gigantic musical teases they are, has been drip-feeding us singles for the past year without the faintest sniff of an album. Each one has been pure musical dynamite that has left us longing for more, but nothing ever came. Until now.
When the meteoric rise of fellow noise merchants, The Big Pink, is taken into account, it’s a wonder WBYT has not been forced to fire out an album sooner. There are shades on Methods that rival and, on many occasions, surpass anything produced by the aforementioned London duo – which is no mean feat, we’re sure you’ll agree.
But WBYT also has diversity on their side - a tremendous boon in the modern musical age. For all of the wall of sound influences evident on tracks like ‘We All Have Sound’ and the brilliant ‘Remains’, there are more subtle and intricate shades demonstrated on ‘Where Echoes Land…’ that leave this bold LP feeling perfectly balanced and endlessly listenable.
Methods is a masterful debut and we’re prepared to stick our necks out and say WBYT will be one of the great breakthrough acts of 2010 – and they deserve to be. It’s been a long time coming, but we’re bloody ecstatic this has finally been released.