This Time Next Year

4 piece band from Manchester, only formed in June 2007. 

Academy Unsigned 232
Club Academy
14/12/07
TTNY take note; setting up some sort of connection with your audience really is important. Being relatively unknown with unknown material doesn’t make it easy, but if your crowd is mostly hovering nervously at the back, then do something to engage with them (in addition to the music of course). Establish some upbeat banter (maybe humour) to help the mood, but above all the most sacred command is this; ‘thou shalt not “faff” unnecessarily and for a long time between tracks’. It is the ultimate recipe for loss of momentum and sadly is a trap that these guys fell into tonight.
‘Roll the Dice’ blends easy-on-the-ear melody with heavily distorted power chords and the heavy intro and subsequent chord progression of ‘Free’ aren’t bad at all, but after these two tracks things become distinctly more monotone, the band lose drive and begin to look increasingly…well, bored. The exception being the drummer who is a strong performer throughout, delivering some fantastic fills even if he seems to be on a slightly different wave-length to the others.

4/10

Set list:

1. ‘Roll the Dice’
2. ‘Free’
3. ‘Plans for the Future’
4. ‘Slipstream’
5. ‘Thousand Times’
6. ‘Dedicated to the Decidated’

Polly

Academy Unsigned 251
Academy 3
16/02/08

I enjoyed this performance a lot more, and judging by their happy expressions and energetic playing I think This Time Next Year did too. From start to finish it was a considerably tighter, more driven affair that saw all band members working effectively as a unit and powering the set forward. Strong lead vocals, engagement with the crowd; altogether far more convincing.
What they need to do now is write some more songs, incorporating a greater variety of guitar work in the process; for although the meaty distortion had a very good initial impact, it did become a bit cloudy as the set went on and could have been broken up by some choppier chords, perhaps a few more solos etc (as well as easing off a little on the fuzzy distortion). ‘Slipstream’ opened with a mellowed sound and pretty guitar line which provided a welcome change in tone, demonstrating that they can vary dynamics and should take it further.
The main thing This Time Next Year proved at Academy 3 was that they are now in a position to really take off and get better and better. So do keep an eye out for them.

6/10

Set list:

1. ‘Roll The Dice’
2. ‘Free’
3. ‘Thousand Times’
4. ‘Slipstream’
5. ‘Plans For The Future’
6. ‘Dedicated To The Dedicated

Polly