We’ve been having a listen to the new single from Lucifers Beard here at the Send Me Your Ears Studio today. Shake On The Floor is out today and is the solo project of Chris Barnes of Shrewsbury, UK.
Chris made us laugh here by mentioning that he’s been building his home studio with the money his girlfriend intended to use for a new kitchen floor! Surely we’ve all been in that position!
Shake On The Floor is an energetic, balls on the floor relentless rock song. The song, for the most part, is kick driven and the various panned guitars and heavy riffs keep the song moving along at a fast pace.
There’s lots of different sections to “Shake on the Floor” to keep the listener on their toes. We can very much hear a Mars Volta influence here, but there’s a brief couple of moments where the song goes off in a different, almost blues rock, direction and just temporarily sounds like Joe Bonamassa has joined the party!
At around about 3 minutes in, Barnes has a Glenn Hughes moment on vocals – in his hey day – not so much now but for the most part you can just tell how bitter and angry at the world he is. This song sounds like it was good therapy to write and perform.
Our vocal coach notes that the enunciation of Barnes vocal technique is superb. It is very clear that he’s really shaping the sounds well and is putting in maximum effort here. It’s a shame in a way that the vocals are just a little lost in the mix. We can tell that he’s angry but we’re not entirely sure what about! The backing harmonies and various vocal effects are a nice touch and work well.
From a production point of view, a wide shelf boost in the top 3 octaves would add a little more clarity to the overall track – especially the vocals and drums. Because there’s a lot happening at the same time in the track, Chris would do well to take a look at defining the EQ range of the instruments a little more clearly so that each has its own space and isn’t fighting for attention. To us, the bass guitar is either lost or absent, and it feels as though the many layered guitars are fighting for attention and that’s a shame as Shake On The Floor is a well written and well performed track. As Barnes is clearly influenced by Mars Volta, we’d suggest taking a listen to some of their tracks with a view to using them as reference tracks when mixing. It should help enormously and bring this song from a good track to a great one!
Lucifers Beard’s, Shake On The Floor, is an energetic, pulsating explosion of alt rock power and drive. For anyone frustrated with the ways of the world right now, this is 3 and a half minutes of affirming rock therapy.