Tuesday 16 February 2016

New Music: Introducing - Haarm


Sometimes on Breaking More Waves I write about an artist once or twice and then for one reason or another never cover them again. Occasionally it’s because I don’t like the material they release next, but more often than not it’s just because Breaking More Waves is a one man D-I-Y 'hobby' project and I simply don’t have the resources to write about everything I’d like to or because of the sheer volume of new music out there, things slip off my radar. 

Such is the case with Jennifer Davies, who I featured back in 2014 with some ‘imaginative, British, kick-ass pop.' Then I seemed to lose track of what she was doing, until now, when she has re-entered the Breaking More Waves zone. 

For Jennifer is a member of new Liverpool based collective Haarm, and their debut effort Foxglove is a murderously good piece of big beat pop. Taking a lesson from Oh Wonder, Haarm put boy-girl vocals side by side, both singers mouthing every word of the lyrics right to the very final “the ship that you are sailing is going down.” Yet where Oh Wonder’s songs are full of tenderness, soft piano and sparse beats, Foxglove finds the drummer getting wicked and the bass getting dirty. It’s the sort of intelligent pop music that the likes of St Etienne made in their prime, that is to say it’s classy but still has a scissor sharp edge to it. The kind of pop that people who don't normally like pop will admit to liking. 

It’s an excellent start. I’m hoping this time to keep Jennifer Davies (and the three other members of this grouping - yes three, even though only two of the others are pictured - there's a mystery man lurking around somewhere) on the radar.

Haarm - Foxglove

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