Yes, the hype bypassed us too (apparently it did occur somewhere at some point), but Austin’s Voxtrot aren’t the sort of band that deserve to sink like a crate full of Terris LPs after a release as strong as the Raised By Wolves EP.
As soon as the lead track kicks off – and kick off pretty sharply it does too – there’s something undoubtedly arresting about them, with the playful basslines, fawning lyrics like “I’m a hungry man ever since you went away” and soft keys playing against spiky guitars meaning that they’d be the toughest of the lot in a twenty-first century indie-pop uprising. They’d also have one of the best tunes as ammunition.
Supporting track ‘The Start Of Something’ goes even further in attempting to revive the C86 scene, only with vocals reminiscent in places of both Stuart from Belle & Sebastian and Stephen from The Smiths. ‘Missing Pieces’ however has much more bite to it, even with the recurring unrequited love theme, as guitars flex away like they were rejected by Interpol for being too angry whilst the singer barks about standing in the garden brandishing a knife “like an angry child” or something. Whatever it means, it’s affecting enough.
For a band that flick so effortlessly between moody types of music and musical types of mood – even from the verging-on-twee ‘Long Haul’ to the gloriously uplifting closing track ‘Wrecking Force’ - they’ve already accomplished it exceptionally well. Let’s hope there’s plenty more to look out for.
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7Thomas Blatchford's Score