Sometimes you see a record title or band name and you feel compelled to check it out. Not only is Wetsuit an excellent name for a band, but their new album “Yarn for Future Scarves” has that sense of passing through time, like planting trees that you are never going to sit under or leaving messages in bottles that you are never going to get a response from.
And boy am I glad I did check this out, it’s the sort of music that doesn’t easily fit into any tag or genre, pigeonhole or place, music that takes influence and inspiration from all over the musical landscape, jumps genres, ignores demarcations, pushes its own boundaries, sets it’s own benchmarks and ignores scenes and eras, fads of fashion. And that is the only sort of music that you need to concern yourself with.
If opener “Cider” feels like ’90s college rock blended with cinematic scope, raw indie running through a layer of ambient understatement, “Midwest Dream,” which follows, is the sound of galloping alt-country finding itself trapped in an industrial music mosh pit. After that, you have to abandon expectations and accept what they throw at you!
Thankfully, what they throw at you is brilliant. “Amy” weaves a squalling indiescape out of guitars and pummelling drums, “Hashem” is shimmering and understated, until it decides not to be (it’s also the point when you realise just what a fantastic voice Allison Becker has) and “107.7” has them out painting Warpaint, sonically speaking.
There are rare moments in musical life when something unexpected seems to drop out of the sky and land straight in your “new favourite bands” mental list…I’m pretty sure that just happened!
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