The Hoot (08/06/14)

The Yetis – Warm California

‘Warm California’ by Pennsylvania four-piece The Yetis is a perfect slice of summery surf-pop – hazy guitars, soaring harmonies and handclaps abound. Like the Beach Boys at their early best, The Yetis have succeeded in making a faultless piece of sun-kissed music, warm and simple on the surface but with hidden depths of accomplished and complex musicianship. As debut EP ‘Little Surfer Girl’ is due out soon, The Yetis could be the surprise soundtrack to this summer.
Roo Panes – Tiger Striped Sky

Dorset singer-songwriter Roo Panes also paints a glorious picture of summer in his track ‘Tiger Striped Sky’, a warm acoustic ode to the plain, forgotten beauty of the horizon. Panes maintains an organic sense to his music, simple acoustics blending with understated harmonies and sighing cellos to create an earthy, genuine quality, a quality also found in Panes’ wistful and rich delivery. Tinged with nostalgia, ‘Tiger Striped Sky’ paints a picture of reverent beauty.
Lovepark – Slave

Brighton four-piece Lovepark are all lilting rhythms, angular edges and sporadic guitars in ‘Slave’. Working with Charlie Andrew, producer of alt-J’s Mercury prize winning ‘An Awesome Flood’, Lovepark share a similar scatterbrained eclecticism to their music – jagged, brooding and occasionally unsettling, but melodic enough to demonstrate their obvious pop credentials, with crescendos and crashes at will. Impatient, spiky and complex, ‘Slave’ is an intriguing debut.
Shy Nature – She Comes She Goes

Shy Nature are quintessentially indie, in the same rich vein of bands like The Maccabees or Vampire Weekend – frantically melodic and upbeat, ‘She Comes She Goes’ is a timeless mix of jangling guitars, exuberant rhythms and vocals drenched in 00’s New York cool (a la Julian Casablancas). Whilst Shy Nature do little to deviate from the rigid structure of the genre they adhere to, ‘She Comes She Goes’ is a song rich in vitality.
Skinny Bones – Sleep In

A musical collage, ‘Sleep In’ by American duo Skinny Bones is a work of master production. Stuttering acoustics are chopped and mixed with haunting vocals whilst emphatic bass and ticking dubstep beats underpin this constantly morphing tracks. Much like a collage, ‘Sleep In’ takes time to come together, and only through repeated listens will the refined intricacies of the production become apparent.
You – In Halves

The tagline of north London four piece You’s soundcloud page reads ‘We are a bit weird but we mean well.’ It’s difficult to disagree – Kate Bush-esque vocals swirl around a classical piano motif and circling guitars mesh with thundering cymbals. Musically, ‘In Halves’ is strange in its otherworldliness, but lyrically, strangeness comes in the dark, sinister imagery of Anna Waldmann: ‘she melted your heart as it turned into blackbirds’… Very strange indeed, but in the case of You, certainly not a bad thing.