The Rundown: Burning Shapes are a band from the UK who are really good, and as it turns out, innovative. They are releasing their entire album, for free, via QR codes. That’s right, you might want to read that again. Check the bottom of this page for the white drop-down box that has the QR code for their song “Drop”. If you happen to have one of them smarty-pants phones, whip out your favorite scanner and getch’ya some good, free music. They also have a QR code on their website, and apparently if you live somewhere near a show these guys play, they’ll have QR codes around at the shows for people to scan.

If you think you’ve seen Burning Shapes somewhere before, you may very well have. The band has been together since the 90s, but with different names. The group had made some music prior to becoming Burning Shapes when they were a band called Sound Sanctuary. The sound of that band was acoustic/electronic. After the formation of Burning Shapes, remnants of their old sound still shows itself in their new sound.

 

Burning Shapes is made up of Toby (lead vocals, guitar), Dave (vocals, bass), Andy (vocals, MPC, keys), and Steve (drums). So far I’ve only been able to locate two of their QR codes, but fortunately YouTube has some of their songs up already. And from what I have gathered, the have a lot of potential. Early 2012 Burning Shapes is supposed to release their debut album, whose name is being kept secret. Some of my favorite songs are “Lonely Fishes“, “Devil’s Engine“, and “Time Bomb“, and “Silence Amplified“. But so far my ultimate favorite is “Drop“.

“Drop” is full of great sounding, lightly distorted and muffled guitars, vocal harmonies, and a driving drumbeat. It is a really, really good song that has it’s peaks and valleys of quiet and loud. The beginning of the song starts off quiet and slowly builds to the chorus. The chorus makes me instinctively break out into air drums. Towards the middle end of the song when the vocal harmony eargasm occurs (about the 1:41 mark) the distorted guitar that comes in sounds just like the one at the beginning of “Lonely Fishes“. It. Is. Amazing. Sounding.

I was also just recently able to give a listen to Burning Shapes’ new single, “Silence Amplified“, (which according to my inside sources, is making its YouTube debut in the next week or so) and I must say the song is really quite good. Once again, harmony is an important part of the song and is done impeccably. The guitars are a pleasant mix of clean and slightly distorted/fuzzy. The song has a slightly faster tempo than their other songs thanks to some nice drumming. Who doesn’t like variety? This is a very solid and tight Rock song. You will be in for a real treat when you hear it.MarsBands.com loves innovation, and Burning Shapes has it in both their music and the way they choose to distribute it.

Check out MarsBands’ interview with Toby from Burning Shapes!

Interview with Toby: Part 1
Interview with Toby: Part 2
Interview with Toby: Part 3
Interview with Toby: Part 4