Browsing Tag

UK Art Rock

The devil is in the art-rock detail in Outerrings’ latest single, Titan

Posted on 22 July 2023

With a soundscape sweet enough to appease fans of Mogwai, Radiohead, and Sigur Ros, the latest single, Titan, from the Durham-based alt-rock trio, Outerrings, is an ethereal lesson in melodicism.

By using the consistent presence of the gentle yet rhythmically compelling guitar chords as an anchoring point in the release in place of percussion, Titan is as antithetical as alt-rock singles come, but it is all the more mesmerising for it in its reverb-drenched gravitas.

By underpinning the release with the vulnerable fragility of the vocal lines that cry out to those laden with ennui and burden, it is an evocatively artful ride everyone alienated by modern culture will want to strap themselves in for.

Titan was officially released on July 2nd. Hear it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

UK Art-Rock Agitators, Gated Estates Have Made Their Diaphanous Debut with ‘A Letter’

Posted on 16 November 2022

‘A Letter’ is the first single from Gated Estates, and it’s a diaphanous masterpiece. After static and strobe-y synths and harsh electro beats lead into the gentle melodicism, artfully intersected with nuanced waves of synthesised discord, the evocative grip takes hold and refuses to loosen throughout the experimentally awakening release.

With slight echoes of Don’t Fear the Reaper between the artfully contorted crescendos built from appreciated synths and detached guitar notes, the soon-to-be icons of ‘agitated art-rock’ from the Brecon Beacons are easily one of the hottest acts I’ve heard this year.

A Letter hit in ways JJ72 and Julian Plenti usually only know how to strike an intrinsically emotional chord. The first single from their eponymous debut album explores the relationship we all have, whether we know it and acknowledge it or not, with our inner child and how they are one of the biggest influencers on our future.

Under the duress of Dan Linn-Pearl’s vocal lines which weave through the climactic progressions, carved by Shane Dixon (Nick Parker, Ginger Wildheart & The Sinners), Rose Linn-Pearl (Peiriant), Jonathan Morgan (OCTO-PI) and Darren Beale (The Caves, The Boomtown Rats), it is impossible not to fall in to A Letter hook, poetic line and sinker.

Watch the official music video, created by Martin Whittaker & TCLD, for A Letter on YouTube.

Follow Gated Estates via Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Review by Amelia Vandergast