Dartz! – ‘This Is My Ship’
Posted by AlMachine on Tuesday, February 6, 2007


Dartz ascent to this point has been miraculous; it wasn’t until March 2005 that they played their first gig and just 6 months later they played the unsigned ‘In the City’ festival and wowed onlookers. Since then William, Henry and Philip have released ‘St Petersburg’ a sugar coated 2 minute burst of pop and ‘Once, Twice, Again’ the single which preceded this album. Such a swift rise indicates something special and, although it breeds resentment, the fact is that many of the fast-tracked bands around are fast tracked because they are quite frankly the best. Dartz are no exception to this rule, they are a band positively spilling over with energy, intelligence and a relentless knack of writing classic pop songs. ‘This Is My Ship’ could perhaps be seen as the first sailing of the fair ship Dartz and it doesn’t disappoint.

Dartz sound combines The Futureheads northern guile with Franz Ferdinand’s wit and produces a satisfying mix. Although the music is almost exclusively pigeonholed under ‘indie’ there are snippets which make you feel there is influence further a field. ‘A Simple Hypothetical’ sounds like Taking Back Sunday if they hailed from Newcastle while ‘Teaching Me to Dance’ has a jazz influence with a Rapture vibe. The album has a very tried and tested formula but Dartz possess an irresistible sense of innovation somehow. ‘Harbour’ is a simple A to B pop song before the music falls away to a gentle guitar strum and the vocals call out “I think this year we should do things a little different, we’ll skip our birthdays and have fireworks at Christmas.” The music is quirky, as are some of the rather eccentric vocals but this adds to the charm of the band.

The more mundane themes such as cold holidays and the everyday working life give them that distinctly British feeling but they don’t become constrained by this and still manage to cram in Laser eyes and robots into their thinking. ‘This Is My Ship’ enjoys much variety in its focus while retaining the core pop music element.

As you’d expect the album doesn’t last long but nor does it need to cling on too much after such an exciting set of songs. William and Philip’s vocals combine to create a satisfying change to the set formula and Dartz ascent looks complete on the basis of what is one of the best debut albums you will hear all year.

Chris Reynolds

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