Qúetzal Snåkes
Getintothis’ Patrick Clarke’s new music column hits its 54th week with a stunning new release from Mr Nice himself, psych-surf brutality from Marseille, and transporting East London electronica
Earlier this year, I voiced my dissatisfaction with Record Store Day – their loss of direction, over-commercialism and so forth. Yet though we’re months from 2016’s dawn queues, there might just be an indication that they’re heading back to their vintage best.
The record that might rescue them is a new E.P. from the devilishly venerable Mr. Nice himself, Howard Marks, whose 5-track EP compiling spoken word recordings of the work of Dylan Thomas is among the first titles on the bill for next April.
A taster, Fern Hill dropped online this week via O Genesis, and it’s a shady slice of louche, literary cool at its absolute best. A carefully assembled band provide the snaking licks, but it’s Marks’ wickedly gruff Welsh growl that takes centre stage with evocative, captivating charm to match Thomas‘ dreamlike lyrics of lost youth.
The new EP from Marseille’s Qúetzal Snåkes, meanwhile, dropped last Thursday draped in a churning, three-guitar attack of shrouded melodics. At times tumultuously barbaric (Satan Cruz), at others glistening with a distorted serenity (HeyHeyDopePaint), and on occasion simply careening with a blistering psychedelic whirl (Six Cent Soixante Six), they stride a line between psych, surf and shoegaze like very few can.
East London’s enigmatic DrumTalk, finally, released his new EP Lose Again this week with Berlin-based vocalist Josa Peit in tow for a majestic title track. Across the record beats glow with momentum and fixed intentions, yet with delicate, measured submersion in flowing, spanning textures they transport as much as they arrest to marvellous effect.
