runawayGo are a Belfast based five piece who have just unleashed a five track E.P. and it’s a great introduction to the quintet.
Starting off with ‘Electric’, runawayGo draw you in with driving beats and guitars, coupled with great twin vocals from Fiona O’Kane and Dave Jackson, the combination is enough for the hair on the back of your neck to stand up. Musicianship on the track is top notch and it’s mixed beautifully, bring out every guitar note, every breath both singers take, without overcrowding the soundscape. Anthemic rock at it’s best.
When you start an E.P. so well, it can be hard to live up to the opener. What runwayGo do, is then show a softer side on ‘Drowning’. It still features great upbeat dramatic guitars but ‘Drowning’s best asset is the vulnerability in the vocal combination of O’Kane and Jackson backed against the grunge-like musicianship.
Releasing these tracks as an E.P. was a clever move, the band have been slowly releasing them to the public since Summer 2011, ‘Delicate Man’ being the first that your humble reviewer heard and I have to be honest, there are not many bands that make me love them like runwayGo. They write great songs as this E.P. shows, they structure their songs beautifully, rising and falling just where they should and having two lead singers is something, very few bands do successfully. But runawayGo do. Their vocal arrangements are something to be admired and musically they have merged elements of grunge, emo and straight up indie rock to create a relevant and contemporary sound.
It’s still only May but runawayGo are one of my bands of the year.