Soft Walls
No Time
Release Date: Jul 29, 2014
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Rock, Lo-Fi, Experimental Rock, Noise Pop
Record label: Trouble in Mind
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Album Review: No Time by Soft Walls
Great, Based on 6 Critics
Based on rating 9/10
Not content with playing in fellow Brighton experimentalists Cold Pumas and running a label (Faux Discx), Dan Reeves also makes music under the solo guise of Soft Walls. His 2012 debut The Soft Walls hinted at future possibilities, and the follow-up No Time delivers in every conceivable way. Constructed at home and in the Brighton rehearsal space he uses for this and his other project, No Time is the conclusion of several hours' writing, recording, rewriting and then re-recording again.
Based on rating 4/5
The fear that reaching adulthood might bring about the end of all your youthful dreams is part of the human condition. Dan Reeves is racing through his twenties, putting as many records out – with his solo project Soft Walls, as a member of Brighton droners Cold Pumas and as head of the Faux Discx label – as he can while age is on his side. Soft Walls’ new album addresses this worry through panicked, motoring post-punk.
Based on rating 7.5/10
Dan Reeves, aka Soft Walls, is a busy man indeed; balancing the fragile schedule of running Faux Discx records and playing in Cold Pumas alongside his Soft Walls project. Following from 2012’s eponymous debut, Reeves has finally revealed a long awaited second - his first release via Trouble In Mind - a terrain of perpetual colour and a psychedelic record that is far more reaching in its philosophical musings than many of its contemporaries. No Time’s theme circles the subject, as is evident in its title, of time and its passing; a metaphysical pondering on what we should spend it doing and the eminent post-uni question of “What now?” (Maybe another degree – keep the Jager flowing).
Based on rating 7/10
Head here to submit your own review of this album. No Time is the second installment from Brighton based solo musician Dan Reeves (aka Soft Walls) - a follow up record that omits a more focused and confident attitude than its precursor. Released through Trouble In Mind, No Time is an album that seems to float by in an instant. It builds upon the psych-folk elements of Dan Reeves' first project, but delivers them in a way that leaves you at the mercy of their power.
Based on rating 3.5
Busy Brightonian Dan Reeves obviously has a conveyor belt mentality as releases continue to flow forth from both his band Cold Pumas and solo project Soft Walls; No Time is the follow-up to the eponymous solo debut released just two years ago, and work has already begun on the next Cold Pumas effort. If that wasn’t enough, he runs the Faux Discx label as well. Mainly recorded at home in Brighton during 2013, No Time was subsequently mixed by Hookworms’ MJ at Leeds’ Suburban Home Studios and the similarities with the psychedelic five-piece that herald from the same city are apparent.
Based on rating 7/10
On No Time, Cold Pumas member and Faux Discx founder Dan Reeves takes Soft Walls a few steps away from the bedroom experiments of the project's self-titled debut. Where Soft Walls was an uneven but intriguing collection of largely impromptu recordings, Reeves gives his second solo album more care, borrowing an eight-track for a cleaner and more detailed sound that matches its more thoughtful songwriting and thematic concerns. Fittingly, No Time revolves around existential dread caused by time (or the lack thereof) and telegraphed in insistent guitars, lockstep drum patterns, and claustrophobic arrangements.
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