Seasfire - New Waves

We’d like to think that Seasfire spelt their name incorrectly just to satisfy Breaking More Waves thirst for everything coastal, but the chances are it has more to do with being unique and therefore easy to find on the internet. Yet ultimately whatever the name of the band is, it’s the music that counts. Right ? Yes, of course it is.

So here’s the low down on Seasfire. First of all, they’re good. There’s been a lot of chatter on the internet about rock music being ‘dead’ and certainly much indie rock music does seem to be playing safe these days, together with its leading media supporters that are desperately promoting distinctly average bands (Tribes, Howler) and waging unprofessional childish schoolyard name calling games on twitter with #edsheeranisshit campaigns. However irrespective of commercial potential there are a number of indie guitar bands out there taking a few bolder steps, not resting on nostalgia and attempting to create something that takes more modern influences. Seasfire is one such band.

Seasfire’s music is all about ghostly detachment and subdued sodium-flicker late night melodies. There’s haunting piano sounds, soft melancholy vocals and layers of both guitars and electronics that glide around together. We’re told that they formed in a bedroom studio listening to the 3 B’s: Buckley, Bunnymen and Burial. To that list we’d like to add another B influence – that of Blake. Because it certainly sounds like Seasfire have taken on  James Blake's modern imaginative influences and added it to their own palette. The difference here is Seasfire take some of Blake’s strategy for unsettling beats, but where he uses empty space they fill it with textured atmospheres.

The songs below represent an impressive start for a new band, without doubt. If you want choruses full of big hooks and punch in the air stadium anthems then go and listen to Oasis or Coldplay, but for something a little more subtle try Seasfire.

Seasfire will be playing the Communion Presents night at the Notting Hill Arts Club, London on February 5 2012.