Music Review// Novella – Murmurs E.P.
When we first heard
news of this E.P. we were excited – having impressed us with their last single
Mary’s Gun, Brighton quarter Novella have never really left our mental Mixtape.
Opening with the
sonically off kilter Blue Swallows, a song that creeps with psych fuelled ease
from the speakers, it’s a notable start. The bands trademark deep melodies fill
the song – and although there’s only four of them it feels like there are a
great many more players as the production brings out the psych inspired big
sound that they do so well.
This is followed by
more down played sound of Phases, a progressively faster song that escalates
perfectly through many phases of sound. As you may have read back, that is just
what the title implies and exactly what happens. The mostly instrumental track
is as addictive as their best work and adds to a very impressive E.P. that,
although not an obviously easy listen from the genre tag – makes for very
pleasing music. It all goes to show that genre is but a name!
Next up we have
Follow, a perfectly formed semi-jam with very minimal vocals and excellent
beats. It’s in the same addictive vein as previous single Mary’s Gun and keeps
you listening right until the end, with no reason to ever press the forward
control. A slower version of Mary’s Gun closes the E.P. and rather than being
padding it’s a fitting close to an E.P. that quite possibly one of favourites of
the year.
Rather than losing
any of its power the song benefits from the slower take, with the Shangri Las
inspired lyrics being shown off even more and proving that they can slow it down
and still produce excellent music.
With an album to
follow next year – you know this will be on your listening device for a very
long time. There are all the ingredients here for that oft-quoted magic
listening moment and you would do well to check this out – especially on
cassette!
Reviewed by Sebastian
Gahan.
Out 14/11/2013 on
Italian Beach Babes.