Another new band from Manchester came to my ears the recent days. Pastel is a five piece guitar band by cousins Jack and James Yates and influenced by bands like The Stone Roses, The Charlatans and The Verve. Of course it is nothing new or the next big hype but they are able to make songs in the tradition of shoegaze that makes me happy when I listen to them.
The more I listen to new music the more I think by myself I heard this long time before. Of course there are artists that try new things or experimentalize on new sounds. But this is mostly in the electronic scene - most of the indie influenced bands try to copy popular sounds from times ago. I presume that the record company leads them to - probably to start a reunion of the sound with their band in front of the revival. These days a lot of bands are appear on the scene trying to copy the sound of the first shoegaze bands like Slowdive, Ride or MBV and it often that I skip the song after one minute. But sometimes you will find a nugget in new releases. So was Swebeacb, a song by Westkust, a band from Gothenburg, Sweden. Massive distorted guitars as the floor for Julia Bjernelind's voice makes this song sounding like an outtake from an early session by Ride
Something new from the four-piece Alternative rock band Wolf Alice from Northern London. It's a lot more rock, grunge and garage stuff compared to their early ones. The new single extends the spectrum by influence of faded away shoegaze, space rock and a little bit of Krautrock. The song comes along with a construction rather unusual for a pop song and shows singer Ellie Rowsell vocally in unexpected territories. Loud, great.
