Glasgow’s Open Swimmer release a new single on the 28th of February. The a-side, Sugar Bowl, is above in the video, and the b-side, Bending Trees is on Soundcloud here. There’s also a Miaoux Miaoux remix.
Sugar Bowl is innovative, eccentric and awesome. Ben TD, the band’s Aussie frontman has crafted some great songs, infused with a syncopated, confused sense of direction – strings of lyrics smash into one another like atoms in a super hadron collider, choppy drums and piano provide idiosyncratic rhythms to boot.
Backing vocals reminiscent of Edinburgh contemporaries The Son(s) add a harmonic edge to the scattergun approach of the tracks, creating a gorgeously contrasting double-edged musical sword.
Bending Trees, in comparison, is a relaxing ambrosian delight; driven by TD’s voice and permeated by a more chilled atmosphere it still treads the same ground as Sugar Bowl and pushes the envelope, albeit in a manner more suited to Emily Barker and the Red Clay Halo than the unique style exhibited on the a-side.
Rating: DDDD1/2
