Author Archives: Jo Highfield

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Sometimes it’s difficult to understand exactly why we live in a world where genre is such a predominant consideration.

Like many others, it’s not occurred to me to premeditate all my record buying. I generally like to casually peruse a store: have a purchasing ponder, a quiet consideration, a vinyl vs disc dilemma. In fact, the only place I rush is home, to ascertain whether newly procured record-in-hand lives up to all expectation. But to be reductive: efficiency triumphs and the genre riddled record shop remains. Without the ‘locate indie here’ directive I may find myself fumbling through a dub step section; and that people, is a place I never wish to be.

We procrastinate, but the point is poignant enough: I don’t know where Emily Wolfe should be placed within our label loving social scenario. The genre dilemma is readily avoided in worldwide webspace. We can attach many a tag to the track, but ultimately new release Ghost Limb is an accolade to authentic sentiment and subject. Emily Wolfe is considerably honest, and if we were all honest all of the time, we definitely wouldn’t sound the same on any two days. So if you’re relying on Emily Wolfe’s previous release Swoon for direction, look away now.

(Disclaimer: For those of you whose heads are swimming with questions like ‘is she really indie though?’ we are succumbing to the social norm and will attempt to categorise).

Ghost Limb (released October 7th) is a starkly haunting and head turning effort, combining the straight forward matter of classic rock, with something a bit more sultry. Featuring the sort of raw riff the mid-nineties would be proud of, Ghost Limb resonates with palpable passion. Whilst the subject matter speaks to the perils of consumerist society, there’s a grabbing grittiness lurking beneath the unblemished but believable vocal.

Save the pop passé stamp, this is a more vintage rock, meets femme sincerity, sort of affair.

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San Fran five-piece Waters, sing a scuzzy statement of intent via new track “I Feel Everything.”

Waters delivers thrashy riffs and simple sentiments, retaining the raw roots that encapsulated the 90’s alt rock genre. Having worked with Grouplove (the band, not dabbling in orgies) their semi-ethereal charm is evident, but “I Feel Nothing” is executed in a particularly carefree fashion. Definitely one for fans of Cage The Elephant, or a good old fashioned honest sentiment.

“I Feel Everything” is taken from the bands forthcoming EP, It All Might Be Ok via Vagrant Records.

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Remember being demurely distressed? Standing alone somewhere, pining for a love lost or after a cake when the cake shop shut. Imagining if your life were to take film form for a moment, a sad-scape would creep into the backdrop and pathetic fallacy would take it’s course. Fear not. Tuck your tears in. We have a soundtrack to accompany any morose moment. Hurry Death, an LA based and hard to categorize collective, have released an emotionally charged dream riddled record.

Understated and sentimental, “Goodbye, Lyla Garrity” is perfectly poignant. Whilst Hurry Death in it’s name may emit visions of thrashing metal mosh pits, by nature, the product couldn’t be more removed. Emotionally charged, but distilled amidst a dreamy motionless five minutes: Hurry Death have bottled sadness, then diluted it across a hazy accolade to heartbreak. The simmering, mournful sound will gently fizz it’s way into your bones. If ever a song so encompassed the loneliness of longing and the torturous dread of departure; we hadn’t heard it until now.

It’s not often such a simply stated sadness avoids the emo label so smoothly. But side stepping any cheesy traps, Hurry Death ensure that the scenery of farewell never sounded so nostalgic. I don’t know who Lyla Garrity is, but this is certainly a grabbing goodbye.

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You can credit Canada with many a triumph: having mountains of music to admire being one of them. We could write essays on Broken Social Scene’s quiet conquering of all things indie-rock. Or Braids’ fixation with curating ethereal evening atmospherics. But let’s not discuss that, because in “Animals,” Canadian band In-Flight Safety have delivered a guitar driven dalliance that’s well worth chatting about.

Think the sophisticated swoon of Interpol, but exchange the introspection for a somewhat simmering and pop driven performance. Not the serious and composed exterior of Paul Banks or Matt Bellinger, but instead dulcet, demure tones that underlie a playful and summery soundscape.

Without being sultry or self conscious, “Animals” is an exhibition of nu-indie featuring the care free confidence of the 90’s gone by.

As the remnants of summer start to subside, In-Flight Safety deliver a dose of sun sprayed exuberance, before the winter encroaches upon our ears.

Note: Don’t google in-flight safety without the addition of ‘band’. You may stumble across a lecture relaying the perils of carrying your pets as cargo: there’s a high mortality rate involved in this process.

“Animals” is taken from the band’s forthcoming album Conversationalist, releasing 22nd of September via Conehead UK.