LEFT SIDE BRAIN
‘EQUAL AND OPPOSITE’
SUGAR SHACK RECORDS

‘More tasty Welsh screamo’

8/10 - METAL HAMMER
What is it with the Welsh and epic, tuneful emo? Whatever it is, we’re not complaining. This album builds skillfully on the foundations this four piece laid with their ‘Surface Tension’ EP earlier this year. Now living in Bristol, Cymru boys G (guitars/vocals) and Ryan (drums) along with slightly newer Anglo members Oli (guitar/vocals) and Rich (bass/vocals) have turned in an assured and memorable debut which starts sounding like a contender for emo album of the year even after a few listens. Opener and EP track ‘Figures’ has the lush and intense feeling of ‘Troublegum’ era Therapy? but excellent production courtesy of Neal Calderwood (who coincidentally has worked with Andy Cairns too) boosts this to even more stratospheric levels.

LSB’s signature sound is the judicious and sparing use of tight three part harmonies which, when unleashed, are full of plaintive yearning. Newer material like ’Clout’ employs guitar riffs that are more angular than a cupboard full of set squares. 
Strangely enough the band are at their weakest when they are sounding closest to Funeral For A Friend and Lostprophets wearing their hearts on their sleeves on tracks like ‘Fallout’ (and they could do with losing the guitar solo). But to be honest, if this is the only criticism we can lay at the door (and it is), then this band could be the ones to burst through the cockpit door of the top twenty next year brandishing Stanley Knives. Mainly they are stamping down on the pedal and the more they do, the less they sound like their Pontypridd neighbours.

‘Uncomfortable’ comes on like The Wildhearts, Husker Du and Helmet all rammed into a blender and formed into a diabolically tasty but unhealthy rawk smoothie. And there’s a secret track which Led Zeps all the way to fuck and back. Superb.
JOHN DORAN

Left Side Brain 
Equal and Opposite 
(Sugar Shack) 

KKKK (4/5) - KERRANG

ANGLO-WELSH PUNKS OFFER STINGING FULL-LENGTH DEBUT

The kind of band that gives you a bit of hope for the UK underground scene, Left Side Brain play a low slung and deliciously metallic brand of post-punk that sounds like Ash on a Soundgarden bender. For much of this debut, the Bristol-based band get the combination of accessibility and off kilter menace just about right. The likes of 'Clout', 'Uncomfortable' and 'Low Tide' jut with angled melodies, simple but refreshingly heavy riffs, and enough emotional cadences to keep the overloaded emo boat from sinking.

A band who have set out with no greater intent than to make riotous noise with tunes attached, Left Side Brain can consider this mission accomplished. 
STEVE BEEBEE

Left Side Brain - Equal and Opposite 
"ANGLO/WELSH ONES TO WATCH

**** (4/5) – BIG CHEESE

You might have seen this band's video for the excellent Fallout on Scuzz recently. It had samples from the old protect and survive films at the beginning? One of them was wearing a really bad shirt? Anyhow, that's irrelevant (although it was a bad shirt!), but if you caught the video you may well have found the song sticking in your head, I certainly did and I was glad when this arrived for me to review.

All eleven songs by the Anglo/Welsh foursome sound instantly familiar without ever really ripping off anyone in particular. The storming intro 'Figures' is a beautifully structured smack in the face that forces you to listen, introducing you the tightly structured three vocal harmonies that haunt the rest of the record. The searing triple vocal attack backed by some ripping riffs, strike an almost perfect balance between vocals and the music. Just on the right side of commercial, these lads make some pretty darn good emotive anthems that will stick in your head for days. These are definitely ones to watch.
ADAM FUNNELL

LEFT SIDE BRAIN
‘EQUAL AND OPPOSITE’
(SUGAR SHACK RECORDS)

6/10 – ROCKSOUND

So much of Left Side Brains’ music – not just the hoarsely tuneful vocals – sounds like Feeder with a firecracker up their backsides. It’s like they’ve taken the harder moments of ‘Polythene’ and cranked the distortion pedals up several notches. But then Feeder’s success is based on their ability to initially launch into brutal formulae before blind-siding you with a slab of quirky pop. Apart from on the sensational ‘Fallout’, Left Side Brain haven’t quite got the catchy melody bit sorted yet. Maybe they don’t care; after all, grungy, sludgy riffs are the order of the day on ‘Equal and Opposite’ and they’ll suit the majority of headbangers and slam- dancers down to the ground. But when the rare melodies are unleashed, you can suddenly picture Left Side Brain lurching out from the underground and into the mainstream, never to return.
MIKE HAYDOCK