da Mass Movement #19
(By Martijn Welzen - 03-01-06)
Multiball believe in their music, which makes them pour ever fibre of their being into every single song.
Punkrock every now and again has, as we will all know, bands that play punkrock for the sake of being cool and trying to get attention. Multiball are the total opposite, and maybe the most humble musicians you could meet. They are from a not very sunny place like California, where all the skaters seem to reside, but come from Slovenia, just a small country in the east of Europe where influences, possibilities to play etc are very slim. That background gave them the drive to be better, and so reminding me musically of Shades Apart, who also gave just that bit more for their music. With the input of punk from the Ramones most melodic songs and No Fun At All like skatepunk they widen the horizon. This band totally surprised me about a year ago with their debut “At Last” with which they already showed their capablities, this second stage of their journey takes they to a higher plane. About time everyone picked this band up.
da DONA AND DONER
(by Andreino - 20-12-05)
Ho qui da farvi ascoltare un gruppetto niente male, il loro nome è Multiball, vengono dalla Slovenia e tornano sulla scena con il loro ultimo lavoro dal titolo "Endless Journey".
Dodici tracce di pop-punk che segue molto la scia di gruppi come Over It e No Use For A Name, giusto per citarne due. Infatti si sente molto, in loro, l\'influenza della costa occidentale statunitense: chitarre distorte in cui non mancano riff veloci e incisivi, batteria dai ritmi serrati e testi che trattano argomenti della vita di una band come la canzone che dà anche il titolo all\'album "Viaggio senza fine". In tutto questo aggiungete un pizzico in più di sonorità sull\'emo, come si capisce già dall\'apertura della prima traccia "When I\'m Done" in cui si sente subito un arpeggio molto pacato e melodico che poi va a finire in sonorità ben più accese e aggressive. Potete trovare canzoni come "Friday Night Anthem", quella più "feliciona" dell\'intero album che molto ricorda il punkrock delle origini, altrimenti una certa attenzione dovete dare a "This One", la canzone più veloce dell\'album che si apre con un giro di chitarra tipicamente rock\'n\'roll, in cui la voce diventa più incazzata.
Insomma un disco che presenta un pop-punk con stile, non banale, in cui i Multiball hanno anche saputo lavorare molto bene sui suoni, utilizzando a volte degli effetti di chitarra molto particolari.
da Trueside Music
(by Elvis - 21-10-05)
MULTIBALL is way back with their latest release called “Endless Journey”, which will come out on Indelirium Records. Playing Indy Punk rock somewhere between old Gameface, some newer Saves The Day or even some newer Beatsteaks influences these four kids from Slovenia really created something cool. I like these 12 melodic, up-tempo and melancholic played songs. Between “Endless Journey” and their last release “At Last” the band has done a good step forward. The sound isn’t so much boring like it used to be once. But less pop and more Punk should it still be. Maybe they’ll take that step forward with their next release. So if you are a fan of the bands above take a break and listen to these 12 songs. They aren’t bad at all.
da Punktastic.com
(By Spud - 18-11-05)
Multiball are a plus one to the world of pop-punk and are unlikely to win any awards for originality. They can claim to be the first Slovenian pop-punk act I\\\'ve heard but that\\\'s about it, I\\\'m afraid.
I\\\'m torn here, I really am. On the one hand, Multiball can be described as not bad and a fair take on generic pop-punk based bouncery. Then they go and let themselves down with tracks like \\\'Too many\\\' which significantly drag this CD down. Most songs are fairly well put together despite the fact that track 2 \\\'We don\\\'t know why\\\' lifts one of its riffs straight out of a song I\\\'ve heard recently – but I\\\'ll be damned if I know which one. Infuriating! My real problem is the warbling vocals. They\\\'re the aural equivalent of a vibrating jelly (see track 4 for the best illustration of this) and I can\\\'t seem to hook onto them except in a few tracks where a gruffer sound is employed to compliment a heavier guitar line such as in the opening two tracks. In fact, if the band\\\'s next release employs this harsher style throughout the record then I can see them making some decent headway.
I\\\'m not quite sure where the problems with the vocals stem from. Perhaps it\\\'s a pre-occupation with making their record sound accentless and an attempt to appeal to a wider audience but it\\\'s distracting. That said, every time I write something remotely negative in this review I remind myself that there are some great tracks underneath it all and two or three which work as they are. A greater vocabulary on display within the lyrics would be nice too, but my Slovenian isn\\\'t up to much so I won\\\'t dwell on that.
I can\\\'t blindly recommend this to you all, but I can\\\'t deny the obvious promise shown within. If their next release addresses the issues I have with the vocals (which, I must stress, doesn\\\'t seem to affect all songs) and keeps the awesome, if generic, hooks and progressions used here, then I can see them producing something of real substance in the future. As it stands at the moment, they come across as the Lipton Ice Tea of the pop-punk world: not to everyone\\\'s tastes. There are much shittier records than this floating around at the moment though, and I can\\\'t be too harsh on what is a mildly exciting prospect especially when a trio of songs open with riffs so air-guitar-worthy that I find it hard to control my hands. Not bad.
