What does Cincinnati sound like? It’s difficult to triangulate a style from the city’s most famous exports, because what exactly links The National and John Bender, Adrian Belew to The Afghan Wings and WHY? If anything, the only common theme might be a certain sense of placelessness, as if Cincinnati’s sole binding influence is how it manages to be absent from the music it births.
Spoils rise from within this strange space, looking not so much to answer to the question as provide another outlier to an already crowded group. New EP Nothing For A Man, out on the 18th August via Happy Families, reaches across the decades in terms of influence. The nineties rear its head, with echoes of the punky power pop catchiness of that dog and some of their grungier contemporaries, though the sound could slot just as easily next to Soccer Mommy, Spirit of the Beehive or indeed any number of the current wave of indie rock and pop. “Mostly, our music is an answer to living in the Midwest,” explains lead Nina Payiati. “We love it here. The landscape of Ohio feels very lush, vast, closely integrated with nature and sky. The culture is pleasant, it feels rooted in history and community, our music is a part of that quilt.” Ultimately, “it’s Ohio style.”
Lead single ‘Come Closer’ gives a taste of the sound. A meditation of post-pandemic living which simmers and twitches and croons, its tone at once bummed out and strangely triumphant. As though in the aftermath of isolation, every bittersweet detail of the community takes on a new shine.
