I guess all, well, most modern music is just an extension of what has gone before. A throughline that extrapolates from what was and gives the contemporary music maker a launch pad of sorts to what might be. If that is the case, then Pablo’s Paintings is a glorious continuation of the psychedelic sound. Of course, that is an over-simplification, not least because between that jumping-off point and the music this Leeds, UK trio make today lie all manner of sounds and genres to shape and season and style and subvert, such as punk, indie, Brit-pop, turn-of-the-century guitar revivalists, and everything in between.
Hey, it’s just a theory.
However they get there, “The Moon Underwater” is a heady blend of golden-age psychedelia and modern indie, retro-fitted garage rock, and a hint of Britpop. It’s short, it’s sharp, it’s shockingly effective, just over a minute and a half’s worth of precision sonic engineering, echoing a glorious past and hinting at an equally glorious future.
The art of using what has gone before to make your music is not merely to copy, plagiarise, or plunder, but to find its vibe, its sonic nature, its essence, and work that into a sound for the here and now. And that is precisely what Pablo’s Paintings is doing here.
The sound of the past being used as the basis for a song that fits today’s zeitgeist, and which is in turn a portent of great things to come. That’s how you do it!
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