Indie as a genre has been pretty well defined for a while now. Having evolved from its original political meaning within the music industry to become a genre label in its own right, it generally indicates pop aware melody and musical adroitness, that fine line between commerciality and underground cool, between accessibility and integrity. But what does the band of 2018 do to stand out from the pack?
One answer is to do what Hyperschmitt does. Forget warping genres and cross-pollinating your sound with the tricks and trappings of other genres to gene-splice indie into some sort of modern musical Frankenstein’s monster. It isn’t about subverting expectations, it is about feeding them but if you can do both simultaneously, all the better. For whilst you will find a lot here that is familiar, shimmering guitar work, dance fuelled grooves and instantaneous melodies, it is how they fashion those elements together that is the real skill. The building blocks may be familiar but the resulting sonic architecture is dazzling nonetheless. Slightly mathy, hypnotic electronic patterns dance around solid backbeats in a place where indie, EDM, pop and alt-rock all overlap, embrace each other and then throw a party. One that you are all invited to.
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