Crafting longing with composure is no easy feat. But London based band Osca seem to have their finger on the pulse of placidity, in this coolly executed and demure debut.
“Blood” is wistful and riddled with remorse, yet simultaneously hopeful. The narrative is exhibited by a crisp lead vocal and textured via beautifully blended harmonies, that climb, rather than accelerate, to fruition.
As the title suggests, this one will work it’s way into the veins.
Frantic and frenzied, Racing Glaciers new track VHS certainly underlines it’s analogue title: presenting a throw back to Northern England’s indie golden era. Disposing of the modern blueprint, Racing Glaciers exchange carefully crafted climaxes for a dose of the DIY. A somewhat raw release, VHS side steps all things overly curated and instead replaces the modern thirst for soundscapes of intellectualised intricacy with some good old fashioned Northern Soul.
Last month TMN gave Phoria the accolade of Bombay Bicycle-esque indie intellects; this month sees us fairly vindicated.
New release “Atomic”, taken from their current EP Display, proves another part of what is shaping up to be a seamlessly sewn jigsaw puzzle. Piece by piece Phoria are creating the bigger picture: an exercise in ethereal fluidity and electronic euphoria. Whilst each track possesses stand-alone strength to admire, the craft of their contemplative EP, is almost conceptual in it’s coalescent execution. More a precision project, than a pile of pieces.
“Atomic” exudes and resonates star gazing and introspective qualities; echoic vocals delicately reverberating with controlled sadness and a firm grasp on smart, minimalistic melancholia.
The Brighton based band have initiated a buzz beyond their base camp. Stirring up the home and international music shores with some nu-wave modernized British indie.
True to Escapists’ stated intention to create a sound that describes “the energy of staying-up all night” when the “bright-eyed optimism of the day…quickly evaporate[s] into paranoia and disorientation”, the original offering of new single Blood wrapped itself in haunting elegance and funked-up euphoria. In this latest, stripped back version of the track, the British four-piece have created the perfect aural evocation of the all-nighter.
With their sonic nod to British contemporaries Bombay Bicycle Club, Escapists seem similarly poised to become the latest indie intellects to reimagine the genre into a more morose and introspective state.
When reinventing Blood within a new acoustic haze, Escapists have been careful not to strip away, or steal from, their lyrical subject matter. In fact, the midnight musings and dawn driven disorientation are all the more evident for the refined reinvention. The ethereal realms of the original remain intact, with the clarity and sloppiness of dusk-til-dawn obscurity cyclically and intermittently relayed throughout. Fluid and hazy changeability continually emerges as rhythmic cohesion meets afterhours dreamscapes. With lead singer Simon Glancy murmuring ‘we’ve been up all night / slurring vocabulary / can’t you see your eyes / oh they’re kinda scary’, the lyrical descent into late night reality removal issues forth from an equally disorientated musical backdrop.
An acoustic display of pathetic fallacy, with Blood Escapists have truly curated the soundscape to their own subject matter.
Armed with a blues-print, some swaggy folk seduction and the art of crafting pop-perfection, via the least cheesy and most raw rock routes, James Bay’s latest offering is laden with passionate piano and hooky ballad-esque euphoria.
Simmering with summer sadness, this anthemic and melodic track fuses gritty guitar with some captivating sing-along-swoon. Showboating and utilizing talents that show lyrical and musical prowess beyond his 23 years, If You Ever Want To Be In Love, whilst possessing all the pop-folk euphoria of a 90s driving scene, extends radio-friendly hooks and instead parks itself somewhere in bluesy South American territory.
After gracing the same stage as Stevie Wonder during London Calling Festival, James Bay is now mesmerizing audiences across the U.S, before hopping back to serenade stages in his UK home.
One for a more morose evening, If You Ever Want To Be In Love will put tears in your beers, before the night is through.
Uniting under the moniker Toy Cities, friends from bands The Aviation Oranges and Moving Mountains drew upon their adept previous histories to bring forth a complimentary contradiction of tightly melodic structured sound and hazy indie fuzz.
Presenting the premier of fresh track Pretend, Toy Cities have in their hands an accomplished offering of the polished, yet raw and scuzzy, dream-pop variety. Laden with spacious synths, resonating reverb and walls of sound plentiful enough to build your hopes from: Pretend embodies the introspective woozy swoon of shoe-gaze gone. Modernised, revived and tightly wrapped in densely melodic indie; Toy Cities penchant for perfected song craft, simmers and erupts so confidently, the after effect feels effortless.
Produced by Chris Moore (whose golden touch has graced the likes of Yeah Yeah Yeahs and TV on the Radio), the outcome of offbeat and immaculate indie is perhaps expected, but nevertheless present.
With a competence of craft that exceeds its contemporaries, Pretend is an almost ironic titling of a track which more or less sings of the real deal.
