Combining early-90s, Slowdive-esque sounds with current electronic influences, Russian shoegazers Pinkshinyultrablast find themselves carefully straddling a line that lies between showcasing loyalty to influence and creating a unique, modern sound. The name ‘Pinkshinyultrablast’ nicely encapsulates the group’s music: colourful, shimmering guitar riffs and vocal hooks form the core of the quintet’s music with explosions of reverb and distortion colliding to create a thick, immersive and exciting under-layer to their sound.

Their debut album Everything Else Matters arrives on January 26th, but until then the band’s newest single ‘Holy Forest’ plays with ethereal, reverb-heavy guitars and keyboards reminiscent of electronic artists such as Grimes, before letting loose the wall of distorted guitar noise that typifies this genre. Lyubov Soloveva’s dreamy vocals fall somewhere between Bilinda Butcher of My Bloody Valentine and Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins, as she lays down gentle, effortless melodies that float serenely above the instrumental chaos.

 

 

Born from a stagnant local indie scene, Pinkshinyultrablast strived to play “something radically different” to what they were surrounded by. In a nostalgic genre that at times can seem a contest of who sounds the most like Ride or who has the biggest pedalboard, this group provide a glance over the shoulder back to a time in British guitar music post-MBV/pre-Britpop, but take that sound down a detour via machine-made noises from artists such as dub/acid-house group Sabres Of Paradise. The result is a dazzling, captivating sound and style, and something so much more than a simple revisiting of the past.

 

‘Holy Forest’ is out 19th January, ahead of the album , Everything Else Matters, which will be released 26th January via Club AC30. 

 

Ainsley Walker