Aug 12 2008
Jumpercable - EP
Jumpercable
EP
Monkey Wrench; 2008
The immediate appeal of balls-to-the-wall hardcore is that it presents the core tenets of the genre in all of its unfiltered glory. Guitar, bass, drums, and vocals come together as a singular furious voice, intent of expressing the ferociousness of the music and lyrics in a tightly wound and concise package, free of exterior trappings. But this reviewer’s chief concern is that there are times when those trappings are rather necessary, as they can often provide some stability to an otherwise no-holds-barred genre. Thus, what’s at issue with EP from New Jersey’s own Jumpercable is not that their 9-song, 10-minute effort isn’t a worthy and worthwhile addition to the ranks of hardcore, but that it’s all over before the listener can actually appreciate what’s just happened. And maybe that’s the attraction here: these four guys rock, rock hard, and rock quickly, leaving little room for wasted time or extraneous fluff. Yet, it’s the longest tracks on EP that are the best and brightest – “No Headlights” (1:51) and “9 on the Tension Scale” (1:50) find the band moving musically in all of the right directions, as they give themselves the space to write hooks, choruses, and breakdowns, all of which are essential elements to hardcore. So, if we’re all lucky, Jumpercable will continue to grow as a band and we’ll be treated to another collection of their intense brand of hardcore, but let’s hope they give us a larger sample next time.
