Mitch Travis - Guitar, Vocals
Tim Hartin - Guitar
Chris Traverse - Bass, Laptop
Adam Betts - Drums
Influences
Pink Floyd, The Mars Volta, Tool, Oceansize, The Prodigy, Million Dead, Aphex Twin, Radiohead, Mogwai, Bjork, Team Sleep, Reuben, Can, Biffy Clyro, Sìgur Rós, Ennio Morricone, Four Tet, Weezer, Miles Davis, Gravenhurst, Johnny Cash, Rival Schools, Led Zeppelin, Buddy Rich, Refused, Saul Williams, A Perfect Circle, Glassjaw, Silver Mt Zion, The Cure, Mono, Amplifier, Liars, Deftones, 65daysofstatic, Nine Inch Nails, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Smashing Pumpkins, Duke Ellington, Rage Against The Machine, Jeff Buckley, Battles
Sounds Like
quiet bits and heavy bits
message us with suggestions
Reviews
'There are oh so many varied influences within this brilliant little EP, Tool (10,000 Days), Pink Floyd (Dark Side...) and even Deftones (self-titled). For those of you who love not so obvious prog or just something to zone out to I really can't recommend this enough. 9/10' - Rockpulse
'Sounding a little bit like Oceansize in places and Sigur Ros in others, this three-track EP - titled 'Cours Camarade Le Vieux Monde Est Derriere Toi' - is best listened to loudly, not on little headphones like this Rock Sound reviewer. There's nothig hugely original here, but it's a pleasent and essential listen' 7/10 - Rocksound Magazine
'there's more than a few healthy signs that that the English band maybe taking themselves somewhere new rather than just being happy with sounding like all the others. Three tracks that have some character and leave us rather hopeful. Yes, rather liking this...' - Organ - Demo of the Week
'Their mathrock blueprint is fully developed; echoes of Tool, Mogwai and Tortoise run throughout, but there's a melancholic grandeur about this which is entirely of their own construction. 7/10' - Teletext/Planet Sound
'A kind of magic far too rare. You really ought to pick this EP up and, hopefully, experience that magic moment for yourself. This is good stuff, and deserves to be heard. 8/10' - dieshellsuitdie.co.uk
'Inertia Blooms have set their sights high on this three track EP and it has most definitely paid off. The EP mixes alll the best bits of post-rock to create lush soundscapes that flow effortlessly over you as perfectly and naturally as music should do. What they have created here is something quite unique which should be appreciated' - A Short Fanzine About Rocking
'Gentle lilting real-world electronica, making for some stunning soundscapes, giving way to hectic guitars. Epic.' - subba-cultcha.com
'The intricacies soon give way to the thunder of battered overdriven guitars, configuring classic rock with the slow motion distillation of post-Math timings and the consistently exciting chop of a bass guitar, which comes across with a superbly honed sound. In many ways it does remind me of a very early ‘Size, which I hope is something of a compliment. 3.5/5 - Manchester Music
'Their work contains saccharine elements that mellowed me out, including their ease into the many layers they craft, starting with glockenspiel and one guitar, or just a guitar by itself. Gradually they add multiple guitars and shift scopes, showing that if they don’t have a clear concept for the listener, at least they know how to play their instruments. Perhaps the lead guitarist deserves a bit of a pat on the back, for I really enjoy his more complicated and showy work, especially in the first few minutes of “Pilgrims & Monuments” and “Mexican’t”, clearly influenced by The Mars Volta.' - thesilentballet
'An expansive sounding trio of songs that are as compelling and emotive as they are complex and intricate, HOSTAGES ARE CHEAPER THAN FRIENDS is a work of majesty and slow burning intensity. As an introduction to the work of Inertia Blooms, this is about as intoxicating and enticing as things get.' - UK Music Search
'With long songs to play with, the band exploit the opportunity to have both extended heavy pile-driving sections and long dulcet instrumental melodies. Amazing. 9/10' - Metal Hammer Magazine
'Epic, sweeping compositions which are not so much songs as pieces of music. All three guitarists play different, contrasting and complimentary guitar parts, and there is a section in their final song where a shimmering motif is played in the round by all three, giving the aural impression of brilliantly sparkling raindrops, infused with light, falling from the sky onto our heads and into our ears.' - Art & Soul Magazine March 2008
'Credit where credits due, while they may not be as enthralling as masters of the craft like Oceansize and The Mars Volta, their winding, largely instrumental offerings still impress even the most cynical among us.' - Rock Midgets Reviews Lexapalooza 08
'Inertia Blooms (****), are terrific. Coming across like Explosions In The Sky with vocals, they have the same glacial prettiness as EITS, with a willingness to break into Pelican-esque heaviness. They'd probably rate even higher had we seen their entire set- that said, we saw three songs, which went nearly 20 minutes. Outstanding.' - Covscene
'I witnessed a set by Inertia Blooms, whose post-rock, mainly instrumental ‘soundscapes’ would have been ideal either in an evening or maybe within The Flapper’s subterranean surroundings. Shimmering sweet sounds, but some of the atmosphere was lost on a bright summer’s day!' - BBC Birmingham Artsfest Highlight
'The Past Is Just Behind You', a companion release to 2008's 'Cours camarade, le vieux monde est derrière toi' is now available to download from LostChildren in mp3 or torrent form. You can do that here.
Inertia, noun
“the property of matter by which it retains its velocity along a straight line so long as it is not acted upon by an external force.”
Blooms, verb
"To shine; glow. To grow or flourish with youth and vigour.”
Mitch Travis, Tim Hartin, Chris Traverse and Adam Betts have played together under various guises for 6 years, experimenting with styles, genres, instruments and ideas. Inertia Blooms is their destination and the accumulation of the musical journey that has gone before it.
Wrongly labelled by most as Post-Rock, the band take influence from the likes of Deftones, The Mars Volta, Tool, Godspeed, Oceansize, Weezer, 65daysofstatic and Pink Floyd. Inertia Blooms embody Math-Rock and Progressive Rock as much as this decades catch all genre.
Inertia Blooms have honed their incendiary live experience by playing with the likes of Oceansize, Amplifier, Frank Turner, Foals, Jacobs Stories, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, Arms and Sleepers, The Little Explorer, Euros Childs (from Gorkys Zygotic Mynci), The Mirimar Disaster, Capulet and too many others to name.
'Hostages Are Cheaper Than Friends', released in 2006, is a collection of the first songs written in Inertia Blooms rushed through a studio. Anything worth salvaging has already been picked from the bones and reanimated, and we try and distance ourselves from the rest of the carcass wherever possible. Despite our feelings on the release it received a score of 9/10 in Metal Hammer, who labelled it 'Amazing'.
We took a break in 2007 as Adam moved to Sweden for his Degree, and thus had a slow year... collecting guitar pedals, recording gear and growing hair on our palms.
2008 was by comparison a bumper year. A 9 date UK tour in February, and another 12 dates in September, which coincided with the release of the self recorded 'Cours Camarade, Le Vieux Monde Est Derriere Toi' EP. The name, a slogan of the French student uprising of 1968 was accompanied by a popular piece of graffiti from the movement as the artwork. Translating as ‘Run Comrade, The Past is Just Behind You’, the name represents the creative atmosphere around the writing and recording of the songs, moving from the turmoil of previous bands and finding a more natural, comfortable sound free from previous outside interference and genre-based preconceptions.
All number of surprisingly lovely reviews appeared online and in print, and can be be found in the multimedia section, and in the accompanying discography page for the release.
Onwards into 2009, and the release of 'The Past Is Just Behind You', a companion EP to our previous release, and available as a free digital download from the Lost Children label. During the sessions for 'Cours camarade...' we laid the foundations for 2 further songs, which were then completed in January. This was followed by a massive hardware failure at our studio, and the loss of all the raw files that make up our home recording back catalogue. Unable to edit the mixes, improve on them or use any of the individual recording parts again, it was decided to put these tracks online for free as a thanks to everyone who bought anything we've ever done, came to gigs, wears our badges or knows how to spell Inertia Blooms properly.
In this town, in this time, in this place; we're trying to build an empire.
Review in full : Simon T Diplock, Rocksound / ModerateRock
This is gold dust. Midlands quintet Inertia Blooms play post-rock but, quite apart from most of their contemporaries, are not in dumbstruck awe of the scene’s leaders and seem intent on marvellously messing with their standards instead. And besides the balls it must have taken to ignore how the big boys make their noise, this lot can really, properly play too- bass rumbles, guitars soar and sing, and when vocals do arrive they only add to the mix. But for every great tone, twist, turn or beat though, it’s that boldness and bravery that really shines.
'Pilgrims & Monuments’ is pushed through math-rock spaces into terrific, distorted, Tool-esque territory for over eight minutes, beautiful in places, bristling in others, and bringing to mind other names like Mogwai, Murder By Death, and This Town Needs Guns while somehow avoiding crudely copying any of them. Then ‘Mexican't’ manages to be creepier but even more captivating, like a good dream suddenly stormed by walls of wind and waves of noise and just the hint of a real nightmare.
‘Mega Tsunami’ is the best thing here though- going from subtle electronic whispers past eerie ambience to the sort of tense-and-release riffing that Muse used to do so well before finishing on a massive melodic and emotional pay-off with more confidence than a band who’ve been together just two years are due. Indeed, it is still early days for Inertia Blooms (this terrifically-titled thing is just their second release) but this is a band with the potential to break post-rock to pieces in the most amazing way. Gold dust for now then, but keep digging here and there’s surely bigger and better to come.
We've got a show down the Old Wharf (round the corner from Barfly) on Thur 28th with Maybeshewill and And So I Watch You From Afar, be cool if you can make it down
You’re on this weeks Brumcast! The No.1 show for midlands underground sounds! Please promote/plug/publicise it!
Brumcast 120 ‘End is Nigh’ is now ready for listening and FREE download. Go to http://brumcast.podOmatic.com for download & audio stream links. Download it free and direct from http://brumcast.podomatic.com/enclosure/2009-04-26T12_29_16-07_00.mp3 Here's this show’s playlist :- 1. Betty & The Id - Oregon Trail (2:24) 2. Tantrums - Mek Ya Feel Hype (2:23) 3. Through her Eyes - Battlecry (4:43) 4. Inertia Blooms - Mega Tsunami (6:52) 5. The Concept:MK - Enigma (8:25) 6. Flesh Eating Foundation - Godless (Digicore remix) (3:54) 7. Weatherbird - Declaration of Era's (2:34) 8. King Singh - No, go away. (6:48) 9. Screaming Guns - This is Music (4:13) 10. MISPELT2pointzero - Junkfood Generation (3:46) 11. Rhino - HOOV (7:18) 12. Sonic Delays - Are We Here (5:01) 13. Crystal set - a long trip (2:48) 14. Pressure Tones - Pressurized (2:42) 15. Windscale - 23,000v (4:43) 16. Betty & The Id - End is Nigh (5:41) Enjoy! Little Chris
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