Gallops – one of the most talked about bands from the region – finally release their long awaited debut album Yours Sincerely, Dr. Hardcore on December 10th.  Here are our first impressions (you won’t find any equine wordplay here).

Let’s get the obvious ‘B’ word out of the way right at the start.  Gallops are influenced by Battles.  As soon as you allow yourself to put this to one side it is easy to become completely immersed in the album.  The Battles influence on the album is nothing like as strong as on earlier tracks (like the still extremely catchy ‘Miami Spider’) and the album is even better for it.

Whereas earlier recordings focused slightly more on the electronic side of their music, YSDH comes across like a firmly galvanised full band offering.  The percussion sounds HEAVY and the album truly conveys the power of David Morait’s drumming (which is such an integral part of Gallops’ live performances).

While many bands fail to transfer the energy of their live performances into their recordings this is definitely not the case here.  The sheer sonic-spectacle (?) of ‘Gallops live’ is captured on the recording extremely well.  The electronic elements as expected sound full on the album but the ‘real’ instruments come into their own here.

Tracks like ‘Hongliday’ contain some dirty twisted metal riffs (that will certainly appeal to any check-shirt-dabbling math rock fans). The album version of Lasers wouldn’t be that out of place on (dare we say it) Marilyn Manson’s Mechanical Animals album.  This is no bad thing.  Let us be clear – Don’t try and cross a busy road with headphones on while listening to this album.

Don’t worry – the hypnotic looping intricate electronic structures of many of Gallops early tracks still dominate the album, but the progy-math-rock elements are beefed up beyond belief to create something quite dark in places.

‘Rhythm is a Misery’ contains a cheeky nod to fellow Wrexham chaps K-Klass, with its repetitive ambient sounds and synthetic brass style riffs at the start. Warped snippets of the earlier sounds are carefully worked into the track and pop up throughout.

‘G is for Jaile’ is an epic 7 ½ minute track straight out of the Ed Banger stable (oops!). You can really hear the French electro influences creeping into the trademark Gallops sound.  This is one of the main things we love about this album – Gallops take risks (just look at the album title).

On this release they mix a huge range of sounds and styles from track to track (and even within individual tracks). At no point does the album seem unfocused.

Dr Hardcore is without doubt the most nationally significant release to come out of Wrexham since…um…Rhythm is a Mystery!

Gallops 10 track debut album ‘Yours Sincerely, Dr. Hardcore’ is released on 10^th December via Blood and Biscuits.

We strongly recommend this release as a stocking filler (to darken someone you love’s Christmas day).