Tracks Of The Week, 03.06.16

I’ve found myself recently unable to love tracks on a first listen. I’ll know something’s good but it will seemingly take a few goes for it to really click. PURS, however, got me first time with ‘Surround’.

The track takes the band’s blend of garage rock and shoegaze up a notch; it’s swirly, ethereal and dreamy, but ultimately massive. It’s a balance that is so easy to get wrong – making dreamy sound powerful is no easy task – but PURS get it very right.

There’s a lot going on in ‘Surround’, that’s for sure, and while it’s easy to get lost in the many layers of the track, is that really anything to complain about?

Finland’s Mikko Joensuu has been compared to Father John Misty and Josh T. Pearson, and while the comparisons – as well as those that can be drawn to the vocals on Noah and the Whale’s First Days of Spring – are true, the beauty in his tracks is almost unmatched.

Taken from the first album in a trilogy, ‘Warning Signs’ takes influence from American folk music, but blending a pedal steel guitar with choirs and a flourish of strings, it becomes almost religious.

I’ve always said that, as odd as it may be, it’s the saddest songs that are often the loveliest to listen to. This certainly rings true for ‘Warning Signs’ as its melancholy tone is very, very soothing.

Amen 1, the debut album from Mikko Joensuu – the first of a trilogy – is out 10 June via Svart Records. Parts two and three will surface in late 2016 / early 2017.

It’s clear from the outset that Brawlers – in the best way possible – just don’t give a f*ck. Take ‘Day Job’: not only do the lyrics “I’m having trouble with my day job / I just wanna have a good time / I just wanna take drugs and be sexy” speak volumes to, well, everyone, but they embody the brutal, no-holds-barred honesty that Brawlers represent.

The same attitude is present in the music. Brawlers take what could be a whiny, pop-punk approach and make it actually good. It’s the sort of fun aggression that you just want to let loose to, and I can only imagine what this track is like live.

Brawlers play Camden’s Dingwalls as part of Camden Rocks on Saturday 4 June. 

Speaking of ‘Broken Arm of God’, Midlands-based four-piece The Cult of Dom Keller said they wanted to sound like “a volcano giving birth to an atomic bomb.” You’d be surprised how, in equal measure, such a sound is achievable and enjoyable.

Despite breaking guitar amps in the process, the end product of ‘Broken Arm of God’ is very together: it’s noisy, yes, but TCODK’s intentions are clear and their gothic psych sound is cutting and raw in the most refined way possible.
Between the dark tones and underlying psych groove there’s something that makes ‘Broken Arm of God’ just a little bit addictive – perhaps it’s all a plan to draw us into their cult, but if it is, I’m game.

The album Goodbye To The Light is out July 2016 via Fuzz Club.

Melissa Svensen

Melissa Svensen

Melissa, 22. Editor. Student, music journalist, probably talking about Blur or Bowie