The Carps are from Scarborough, a pretend hood in Toronto. They are a duo that plays music for human ears. Having two people in a band can be a liberating thing, as it has been seen. Such a shame they are so young — had they come around any earlier they could’ve taken credit for more than a few novel ideas. With the EP the Young & Passionate Days of Carpedia, the two ragamuffin soul rockers deliver the promise to set themselves far apart from elephants, swirly red and white candy, beards, brothers and sisters, and Phil Collins. The Carps stand alone. They sound like nothing you could imagine, and everything you’d like to. The Carps thrive on ingenuity and vicissitude. Newness always! Therefore the captain of the ship, Neil White, wielding his disheveled bass and a wonky synthesizer, steers this raw emotion into a palatable and progressive direction. All this while never leaving his “mindless self-indulgent” duct tape Punk Rock days far behind him. Perhaps the jungles of Sri Lanka still run through his veins, though he could never lose the class and distinction that only he, as a real British bloke, could carry. Jahmal Tonge is the soul junkie. Growing up on asexual legends like Michael Jackson and Prince, it was sifting through his father’s record collection that exposed to him to Motown, Stax, Soul music! These are the sounds that are at the heart of The Carps. From behind his drum kit, or with his guitar strapped and his MPC drum machine at his side, Jahmal soulfully screams his soulful, soul-catching, soul-baring soul in a raw way... It’s the only way he knows. It was Bold, Black, Christian women that led him that direction. Discernibly, the sight and sounds of the Caribbean still stick. Hearing the tropical wind blow through an open church tent as a woman cries out to God, tearing her vocal cords from the deepest part of her being, will change a temerarious young boy.