Sunday, February 10, 2013

Sunday catchup: Hop Along/Balthazar/Police Squad

Hop Along - Young And Happy!

Newly signed to Big Scary Monsters, the Philadelphian trio are most immediately notable for Francis Quinlan's voice, rasping and straining at its upper limits but carrying tenderised emotion along within. Her obtusely personal connection is reflected somewhat in the stop-start crashing post-emo (original form) guitars, ragged along the edges but intense at molten core. Album Get Disowned is out April 8th.




Balthazar - Do Not Claim Them Anymore

An acoustic shuffle that threatens to turn into the BBC snooker theme, not that they'll know what that is as they're Belgian, their introspective lollop is bolstered by subtle flute and vague jazziness. They're currently touring with Local Natives ahead of the release of second album Rats on the 25th.




Police Squad - The Crew's Own

The Liverpool outfit follow an EP from last year with a single out March 18th that takes a rhythmically inclined staccato beat and shatters an art-rock frame around it, leaving jagged shards of post-punk guitar and stuttering funk bass all over the place, not often thoroughly coalescing but making up intriguing pieces of the whole.

1 comment:

The West said...

Hop Along is so good. Thank you for the post!