Else Archives - Various Small Flames https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/else/ New and independent music Fri, 22 Apr 2016 18:07:54 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://i0.wp.com/varioussmallflames.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/cropped-finalwhite-e1490809629909-1.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Else Archives - Various Small Flames https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/tag/else/ 32 32 88787050 Solids – Else https://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2016/04/22/solids/ Fri, 22 Apr 2016 18:07:54 +0000 http://www.wakethedeaf.co.uk/?p=8813 Montreal duo Solids played over 200 shows in a year of almost constant touring in 2014/15 after the release of their debut LP Blame Confusion. A year like that has got to take its toll. Perhaps it’s no surprise then that the band, Xavier Germain-Poitras on guitar and Louis Guillemette on drums, feel a little dazed and dizzied on their new EP, Else. The four-song EP still draws heavily on their core influences – early 90s alternative rock – but blazes […]

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]]> Montreal duo Solids played over 200 shows in a year of almost constant touring in 2014/15 after the release of their debut LP Blame Confusion. A year like that has got to take its toll. Perhaps it’s no surprise then that the band, Xavier Germain-Poitras on guitar and Louis Guillemette on drums, feel a little dazed and dizzied on their new EP, Else. The four-song EP still draws heavily on their core influences – early 90s alternative rock – but blazes past the slacker-style pop sensibility into altogether foggier territory, a sound that reverberates with an edgy experimentalism. ‘Blank Stare’ sees the band immediately try to throw off the sound of their debut, the dark and grungey sound setting the mood down a few pegs, settling on what their bio describes as “an anxious, alienated sound that’s all their own”.

‘Wait it Out’ is a lesson in noisy but reflective indie rock, with plenty of heavy growly guitar, though the vocals provide most of the melody and ensure things don’t descend into a muddy puddle of reverb. ‘Blurs’ is more pop punk, with galloping drums driving the whole thing forward, creating a track that would sound great as you tear down a sunny highway in your crappy car. The finale gets heavier and heavier, building into a dense fog of sound reminiscent of early Japandroids releases as Germain-Poitras sings about the perils of constant touring “Wake me up on Monday morning / clean the footprints off the ceiling”. Closer ‘Shine’ sound wide and flat and sunny, experimental noodly guitar snaking around lyrics that hint that perhaps Solids haven’t come out of this hectic period with their sanity intact, “I just close the curtains for the sun to burn them all down / And shine”. The EP then ends on a long outro that sounds like a lonely wind blowing through a window pane on some barren desert plane, a sound that makes me wonder where Solids are headed next.

Else is due for release on he 15th of April on Topshelf Records and Dine Alone Records. You can also preorder it on CD, cassette or 12″ vinyl via the Solids Bandcamp page.

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