REVIEW// Smashing Lights/ Sounds Different Feels The Same

On their debut single Smashing Lights stake a claim to the teenage population

Earlier this year the teenage population went into meltdown after the members of The 1975 deleted their social media accounts in a flurry of ambiguous messages, leading to rumours about the band's possible demise. As it turns out it was all a publicity stunt to announce their forthcoming album, but had the rumours been true it wouldn't have mattered, not now Smashing Lights have dropped their new single.

Entitled Sounds Different Feels The Same, it draws obvious comparisons to the Manchester quartet thanks to it's fidgety guitars, shimmering synths and pulsing bassline that underpin frontman Jack's falsetto. But equally wouldn't sound out of place next to some of Two Door Cinema Club's more electronic moments.

With debut EP 1 on the horizon, you can bet your black skinny jeans that the teenage population will soon be having a very different kind of meltdown. 

REVIEW// Boys/ Ocean

West London boys may have just written the soundtrack to your summer

Ever since Daft Punk dominated the airways with Get Lucky back in 2013 critics and fans alike have begun an annual search for the song of the summer. Something that will be blasted from every corner of a festival, from the PA between bands, to a shitty speaker in the campsite- even the portaloos. 

So, who should provide this year's inescapable summer anthem? The answer comes in the form of West London quartet Boys. Their recent single Ocean is all dreamy guitar and reverb-drenched vocals, reminiscent of DIIV or Jaws at their most shoegazy, creating the kind of blissed-out, hazy atmosphere you'll want to spend long summer evenings getting lost in.

Daft Who?

REVIEW// Four Tet/ Morning/Evening

On the follow up to 2013's Beautiful Rewind Kieren Hebden looks to his roots for inspiration but finds his sound in the stratosphere 

Not many artists are capable of sounding so celestial whilst remaining so grounded, yet this is something that Kieren Hebden- better known as Four Tet- has managed on this, his eighth album. Created on his laptop using Ableton Live, VST synthesizers and found audio recordings, the producer crafts 2 tracks spanning 20 minutes each that transport the listener into a blissed-out stratosphere, that will cost you significantly less than any Virgin Galactic flight. 

The former, Morning is an hypnotic expanse of breezy synths that underpin Indian soundtrack singer Lata Mangeshkar's dreamy vocals, punctuated by electronic clicks that pierce the atmosphere like sunlight through the blinds. 

If Morning is Hebden exploring his Indian heritage then Evening is surely the sound of a continuous journey towards his techno future. Perhaps the closest the record gets to a club rave, it begins with trickling synths that warp into fuzzy, distortion-drenched bass reminiscent of early Kraftwerk. Culminating in a swirling crescendo that brings you back down to earth on a wave of extraterrestrial euphoria. 

Morning/Evening is ultimately an album of journeys. Not just the literal journey of making chappatis with his grandma to making music in an East London club, but a metaphorical journey too-from the earth to the celestial peak.