of arrowe hill - the spring heel penny dreadful
released on the must destroy music label, home to the darkness - a band whose appeal has yet to sink into my current psyche. fear not though this is no spandex worrying genre revisitation rock revival. instead, of arrowe hill follow their own path of indie rock music and weirdness extras.
the band mix top drawer indie rock with surrealness and sonic youth-esque off kilter melodies. there are short sharp incisive tracks ('coming up on the inside') which clash with meandering epics that can from time to time test the listeners endurance, especially the 23 minute hidden track that seems to comprise of various demos/songs - stop the lp at its designated 11 tracks to get the most out of this short blast of psyche fun and games.
with the phased effects, processed/layered vocals, and solid instrumentation there is a palpable sense of a prog rock madness mixed in with the odd classic 3 minute guitar pop song, and, with the pr blurb referring to pink floyd (especially tru on ''dry eyed ballad of a fink') the love of old sounds is apparent, but, the band have an obvious undeniable love of noisy alt.rock as well as the psychedelic overload which they cannot extract from their vision, and, nor should they.
whether they will get the media attention of their highly disputed labelmates is very debateable, but i know in a few years time i will still be digging this out and spinning it and finding new nuances within the melodies and song structures .. nearest comparison i can come up with is united states indie tunesmiths 'the mink lungs' who veer more into the accessible pop side of things, but both bands have the same attitude towards twisting the guitar pop genre into interesting new shapes.
strangely addictive.