Review of Maximo Park: Found On Film

Introduction

Last week, one of the greatest bands ever to hail from the British Isles announced their split. Gorky`s Zygotic Mynci had been producing intangibly brilliant and beautifully melodic music under people`s noses for fifteen years. Whilst Welsh cousins Super Furry Animals got the favourable chart positions, and a thousand other bands borrowed their style and sensibilities, the buying public were largely immune to their charms. So it came to pass that they withdrew from a world for which they were far superior, (one hopes) knowing that they had produced some of the most essential and exquisite music that the planet has ever known. Farewell Gorky`s, and Iechyd Da.

When you`ve had your teenage musical world shattered, and you feel like you`ve lost everything, what happens? You start all over again …

Maximo Park should need no introduction, but they`re getting one anyway. Hailing from the North East of England (`where cranes collect the sky`), they have been bothering the top 40 for over a year now, armed with shiny tunes a-plenty and one of the greatest pop frontmen … ever! Helmed by the uber-charismatic Paul Smith, they have occupied a position in the nation`s collective consciousness once held by Pulp, with their outsider and heartfelt lyrics are posted over a backdrop of New-Wave era guitar and Keyboard stabs. Debut album `A Certain Trigger` packed more unashamedly poppy anthems than most Greatest Hits compilations manage, and assured its place just behind Arcade Fire`s `Funeral` for record of 2005.

`Found on Film` collects one full London show from their NME tour headline slot - a cross country jaunt during which they were routinely unappreciated by at least a quarter of the audience who had come only for the Arctic Monkeys - and crams it onto a DVD along with a 40 minute tour diary, select highlights of a Newcastle show from December 2005, all their promo videos to date, and a few extras.

Video

A mixed bag. Visuals on the London gig are great - all glorious colour and flashing lights. Newcastle gets a more `lo-fi` treatment, with a black and white take on things, save the occasional moment of close-up-colour-action. Tour diary (`Found on film`) goes for the `old movie` look and just about pulls it off.

What we`re saying here is that, whilst you`re not getting the big budget look of U2-like enormodome concerts, this is a band who have released only one album and are steadily climbing their way up the ladder, and it is as good as could be reasonably expected. Anyway, who cares, U2 are sh*t.

Audio

The sound on all performances and promos is fantastic quality (both 2.0 and 5.1), with only the tour documentary sounding dodgy. The Maximo sound men have done their band proud.

In terms of the music included, all but one track from `A Certain Trigger` can be found on film in the London gig. The penultimate track - `Acrobat` - is notable by its absence, which is a bit of a shame as, as anyone who has seen the `Park will testify, it is much better live (programmed drums become a monolithic thudding beat, guitars used to their full potential rather than taking a mere backseat) than on record.

Features

So packed is the DVD, that you wonder what exactly passes from Special Features. The `live extras` listed come from an AOL session, and feature performances of the bands three top twenty singles to date - I Want You To Stay, Graffiti and Going Missing.

However, the videos for al three of those (including 2 for Apply Some Pressure - the second of which is far superior) PLUS `The Coast Is Always Changing` and `I Want You To Stay` are on the DVD too. The latter is a bit TOO arty and proper, whereas the former is very low budget, but this is excusable - the band self-released the single at the very beginning of their career.

Those who shell out real life money (heard earned or not) for the Disc, will get a bonus CD featuring the following: Surrender (BBC6 Tom Robinson session - previously unreleased song) The Coast Is Always Changing, Graffiti, Apply Some Pressure (all 2004 Steve Lamacq session), I Want You To Stay, Going Missing (both 2005 Zane Lowe Session), Kiss You Better All Over The Shop (both from BBC6 sessions) and a cover of Shiver (Natalie Imbruglia one, not Coldplay) from the Live Lounge of the terminally irritating Jo Whiley.

Conclusion

A Live DVD outing for a band that have only released one album proper, and whose singles are still to make an impact on the Top 10 seems a little premature - but, hell, if those peddlers of Britpop nostalgia Kaiser Chiefs can do it, then a band of Maximo Park`s calibre certainly can.

Both gigs included are celebratory affairs. Not only a celebration of the joyous guitar pop that Maximo do so well, but also a celebration of how honesty and hard work can pay off in a relatively short space of time. True, this February`s NME tour will be remembered as one at which the headliners` thunder was - not so much stolen as raped - by the nu-libertines charge and youthful vigour of a group of Sheffield lads, but the Monkeys` ascension has been so fast paced that the fall will smart MIGHTILY. Maximo Park`s confidence may have been shaken, but as this DVD testifies to, it has certainly not been stirred.

In fact, if you temporarily forget the super-hype that has surrounded the internet-favouring acts of the moment, Maximo`s story has itself been quite impressive. Persuaded to join to Warp records - a Techno come electronic label - by the man who once signed Pulp to his own indie imprint, knowing first hand that `geeky` charm and intelligence can sell records when backed by brilliant blasts of pop gold, the band haven`t looked back.

The culmination of the debut album`s impact and a couple of years of relentless plugging away is recorded here on `Found on film`, providing what is hopefully a document of early success and triumph in the face of a mightier power.

Just one question - Who the F*ck are Arctic Monkeys?