Sunday 18 May 2014

ELEL - New Waves


It’s very hard to write about 8 piece Nashville newcomers ELEL and their song 40 Watt without making some sort of lightbulb / power reference (after all the lyrics do so) but honestly this song is a real musical turn on that will brighten up your day (sorry). Described to us as ‘like early MGMT dusted with some Vampire Weekend’, 40 Watt is the sound of jumping on a psychedelic carousel and taking a spin into a world of multi-layered vocals, tropical steel pans and thumping drums. It has a real breadth of sonic vision. This is pop, but it’s not the sort of pop that we’d ever expect Katy Perry or Miley Cyrus to make (although all credit to them if they did). In fact 40 Watt bears similarities to a band like New York’s Cults, but with an extra kaleidoscopic twist.

The band’s debut release Geode is due to be released next month and 40 Watt is a taster of what to expect from that. If the rest of it matches the sparks-will-fly excellence of this tune then we’ll have a rather good record in our ears soon.

ELEL - 40 Watt

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