Spectrals/Fair Ohs Split 7″

Spectrals/Fair Ohs

The current D.I.Y scene in East London seems to be producing quality bands and recordings at an incredible rate, with a range and depth of sounds that means if one of these bands aren’t for you, then the chances are two or three others will be. A few of these artists have recently been brought together on the Italian Beach Babes/Paradise Vendors Inc compilation available here, which serves as both a summation of and introduction to what has been going on. While the scene’s most prominent band and driving force behind Paradise Vendors Inc, Male Bonding, are off to tour the U.S. with Vivian Girls before the release of their debut album on Sub Pop, back in the UK Fairs Ohs and Spectrals are busy building up their own followings with limited releases like this split 7”.

Fair Ohs take afrobeat rhythms and melodies and combine them with clattering percussion and noisy guitars. Vampire Weekend comparisons are perhaps inevitable, but you can still hear traces of the trio’s beginnings as a hardcore band in their punkish energy that means they steer away from the Brooklyn band’s polite precision. Don’t be fooled though – like Male Bonding, the noisey, ragged surface of their songs hide a phenomenally tight musical unit. ‘Hey Lizzy’ in particular fizzes with a kind of sunny-dark energy that is, in their own words, ‘like Paul Simon but… you know… punk’.

Spectrals’ songs, on other hand, are more maudlin affairs, steeped as they are in plenty of noise and reverb. They are the work of Louis Jones, a musician from Leeds and he filters influences as diverse as The Beach Boys, The Everly Brothers, and The Modern Lovers through a love of garage rock and an unmistakably Yorkshire viewpoint and voice. While ‘Birthday Kiss’ swaggers with uncertainty, with the guitar sounding like it was plucked straight from the early ‘60s but daubed with My Bloody Valentine-esque hazy effects, ‘Keep Your Magic Out Of My House’ is a hidden pop song, complete with the attitude of The Supremes via Mark E Smith. Spectrals has an album due sometime this year on Captured Tracks.

Available on the excellent Tough Love Records, who have also released material from Male Bonding, Eat Skull, and Calories to name a few, this split is an interesting glimpse into the way the lo-fi aesthetic is being absorbed by UK musicians in different ways. Fans of Wavves, Vivian Girls, and Best Coast would do well to look to London for variations on a sound that has been dominated by Americans until recently.

No related posts.