Pacer released two very good albums, this EP and a split with Iron Chic, all of which I have in my collection. Between 2011 and 2013 I saw them six times and then they sort of disappeared as their regular lives took over - recently they've played a couple of shows and I hope to catch them again soon. I picked this up when I saw them supporting The Bouncing Souls (on the second of the two nights I saw them play together).
I think one of the reasons I liked Pacer so much is that they didn't sound like a lot of the other bands in the UK punk scene at the time - OK Pilot and The Shitty Limits were the only other bands from around then that had the same frantic energy and heaviness. I guess, most crucially, they weren't trying to sound like Hot Water Music (which is neither a criticism of HWM or the many, many bands we used to see who were trying to sound like HWM - I enjoy both).
Anyway, No. 1 is their debut EP and comes and goes in 16-minutes and seven songs. Everything's Fine and The Long Drop are the highlights, possibly because they have enough time to do some different things (much like on Flutters, my favourite song of theirs by a good distance which is also one of their longer songs despite still not quite hitting the 3-minute mark). It's a solid EP and every bit as essential as their albums for me.
Format: 10", insert
Tracks: 7
Cost: £5 new
Bought: Gig
When: 03/08/11
Colour: Grey with black splatter
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code
