Honour Before Glory - The Maison

Leeds-based Honour Before Glory is the solo project from Whiskas, former guitarist for noisy could-have-beens ¡Forward, Russia!. Lead track ‘The Maison’ is taken from last year’s ‘This Is Broken Lines’ album, but what’s unique about this EP is that it features four markedly different versions of the same song.

The opener is essentially the album version, a surprising choice for an EP release as the languid, almost detached electronica never really takes off and comes across rather like an anaemic M83. This is followed by ‘The Maisonette’, an indie rock take, bolstered by racing guitars, considerably more emotive vocals and busy drumming. It’s also fairly forgettable.

The ‘Players’ version of ‘The Maison’ fares somewhat better, the title track given a dub makeover. The drums have been increased in the mix and drenched in reverb, the resulting spectral sound offers more depth and texture to the proceedings… but this good work is somewhat undone again with the final acoustic version which trundles along mournfully. Four versions of the same song is certainly a nice idea but Whiskas doesn’t quite pull it off here.