Wild Palms - To The Lighthouse

The last time we featured Wild Palms was back in April when they impressed with a sullen industrial assault on the ears at a show hosted by our good Brighton blog neighbours and friends The Recommender (the review can be found here). Their previous single Deep Dive showed much sonic progression from track before that Overtime and now new single To The Lighthouse continues this upward rise, bearing quirky falsetto similarities to another ‘wild’ band Wild Beasts and also late 90’s indie-rock almost boys Geneva. It presents a strong argument for something we argued here, in that bands that show potential should be given exposure even if they’re not quite grabbing trophies yet. To The Lighthouse retains the essence of darkness that defined their earlier work, but now there’s a greater warmth and maturity present. It may not be instantly hooky, but is worth repeated listens and shows a band improving their craft over the course of this year.

The new single together with its equally good double A side Draw In Light streams below and is available to purchase next week. The band are also out gigging throughout the UK - check their Myspace for details.

Wild Palms - To The Lighthouse by One Little Indian Records

Wild Palms - Draw In Light (Album Version) by One Little Indian Records

Wild Palms @ Brighton Jam

Lou Hill, lead singer of Wild Palms has a big mouth. It’s a physical chasm - wide, gaping almost yawning to the floor as he sings. As it opens the sound that surges out suits the bands music perfectly, sometimes soaring, yet at other times twisting and turning into a snappy angry howl.

The bands layered atmospheric indie also fits the dark basement architecture of Jam. Threatening distorted tribal rhythms - sometimes played out on an electronic drum pad - play out over soaring buzz guitars that veer in style from noise doom to jerky angular post rock. Dry ice and overtly dramatic stroboscopic lighting add weighty menace to the bands sonic assault. There may not always be obvious melodies within Wild Palms song structures but there is still plenty of merit.

Quite where Wild Palms fit in the indie rock family tree is a little unclear. The goth Friendly Fires ? A warmer post-punk collective sitting between Gang of Four and a fuzzier Joy Division ? There’s certainly a sullen undercurrent to their songs, yet despite the gloom Wild Palms blast out their industrial new wave to form something that seems almost joyous. By the time they hit new single Deep Dive they have a number of the crowd moving to their taught cutting and gliding sound.

Wild Palms may look like your typical pale faced indie lads, but their music has a wider, artier aesthetic. Whilst in their current form they are never going to challenge for high profile commercial success, their Brighton show still had a dense and substantial impact.

Wild Palms - Deep Dive

To finish the week here’s the new single from Wild Palms. Deep Dive will be released through One Little Indian on the 17th May and will also feature a cover version of the classic Bjork song Human Behaviour. The band are playing a few shows over the next couple of months to promote the single, including the Camden Crawl plus two gigs in Brighton at the Great Escape and The Recommender blog party. It’s interesting to see how many blogs are now developing their brand into the area of gig promotion or as record labels. Fear not though folks, Breaking More Waves has absolutely no intention of doing either.

Deep Dive is sonically more accessible than previous track Overtime which seemed to want to violate the ears with its cut-throat razor aggression. This song positively soars and grooves. It’s a big step forward, laden with almost post-rock guitars that have hints of 80’s stadium wannabees Big Country and Then Jericho. There’s an epic pop song trying and almost succeeding to get out, but the track also tricks you by unleashing spasms of wobbling jittery rhythmic guitar. The video was filmed at lead singer Lou’s nan and granddad’s house and the surrounding area which he grew up in. Enjoy - there's nothing quite like a cup of tea in the bath.