The Chapman Society - Blood Red Room

Fate, factions and transfiction. In 2005, an association formed in North Carolina called The Chapman Society, to educate on the truths of American history, and in particular American Civil War history. I'm not particularly familiar with it. It's just one of those incidental nuggets of information one stumbles across online. That same year, an indie-rock band formed in Dublin by the same name, a coincidence which one would have to presume was just per chance.

While their counterparts in the 'states have kept themselves busy with ho-hum roundtable discussions on history, The Chapman Society in Dublin have remained silent for most of the interm period. However, they've recently sprung to life again, uploading the first taster of what is to come from them, Blood Red Room.


For where it's at, it's quite a great tune. A sparse melody adds a sense of an awakening to the opening line 'I've been counting troops...' and a military beat and a call to arms follows before we launch into quite an emphatic indie-rock song undershadowed by shimmering guitar feedback and occasional military style drumming. It's just a rough mix at the moment, but with some punchy verses and strong melodies through it too, we have quite a cracking first song regardless.

At a guess, the song probably takes inspiration from a Japanese horror animation called The Red Room, a bizzare scarytale cum urban legend of cyber-supernatural forces and gorey cult suicides. It may veer off the credibility scale in terms of theme, if that is what it is about - perhaps they use it as an analogy, but cartoon in theme or otherwise, The Chapman Society should be taken seriously for their ability to craft infectious indie-rock. Not to be drawn into the themes of their music themselves, they state in matter-of-fact stance that 'We are The Chapman Society and this is our music' and I'm not going to spoil their fun by attempting to join the dots any further here either. They plan to launch an official website shortly and release a promo radio single towards the summer, while they are also in the process of completing a debut album. This is a band which may very well demand our attention before the year is out.

Related Links:

http://www.myspace.com/chapmansociety

http://www.thechapmansociety.com

http://www.chapmansociety.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Room