This week’s indie rock trades volume for pressure. These are tracks that smoulder before they ignite, built on restraint and atmosphere rather than the big obvious swing, the kind of weight that creeps up on you and stays put long after the song ends.
Dave’s Manual – Electrical
Dave’s Manual is an excellent shot of late-night rock; earworm melodies, a youthful spirit and a whole lot of heart
After two tracks built on shadow and restraint, this is the one that throws the windows open. “Electrical” is all forward motion: hooky riffs, a chorus that lodges itself fast, and a few unexpected harmonic turns that keep you hooked. It’s loads of fun, and manages to carry that loose, late-night rock and roll buzz of a night out gathering pace, the energy of piling into town with your friends and deciding the evening is yours. Damn, I miss those nights.
Dave’s Manual are a power trio out of Minneapolis who deal in catchy, no-nonsense rock songs designed to stick. They describe themselves, with a nice bit of self-awareness, as about the most palatable rock band you’ll ever hear, and on this evidence the joke lands because the hooks back it up. There is no grand concept at work, just three players who clearly enjoy writing the kind of choruses you find yourself humming hours later, and that ease is its own kind of craft. A beautiful single.
Sutlej – Tell Me You Care
Sutlej make a superb racket on “Tell Me You Care”, a grunge-soaked alt-rock track with the kind of melody that survives the noise.
The track sits right on the seam between heaviness and hook, dragging nineties grunge grit into something with a sharper modern edge. Guitars come in thick and a little anxious, but there’s real melody underneath holding it all together, so the loud moments feel like release rather than noise for its own sake. It has the coiled, restless energy of a band who clearly built this to detonate in a room, and you can hear the live show buried in every bar of it.
Sutlej are a London three-piece made up of Lewis Maddison, George Power and George Butcher, and they made their name on stage before they had much music out, playing intense shows across two DIY UK tours. “Tell Me You Care” was produced by Alex Mountford, formerly of Dead!, who also handled their debut single Let Me Out. They cite Deftones and the nineties alternative scene among a wide spread of influences, and that lineage sits comfortably in what they do here.
DADDY DRWG – Black Thread
“Black Thread” is a brilliant slow-burn from DADDY DRWG, an atmospheric anti-ballad that holds its tension like it’s daring you to look away.
This one works by holding back. Distant, cinematic guitars hang in the space while layered vocals build a quiet kind of dread, and the track resists every chance to break into something bigger, choosing repetition and restraint over release. The tension is the whole event here, drawn out across a slow burn that never quite resolves the way you expect. It is moody, textured and patient, the sound of an artist trusting atmosphere to do the work that a chorus usually would.
DADDY DRWG, pronounced Droog and meaning Bad Daddy in Welsh, is the solo project of Cardiff songwriter and producer Richard Proctor, a Music Technology graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. He has toured internationally with They Walk Among Us and was one half of The MeMeMes alongside the late Cardiff musician Mel Daley. “Black Thread” was mastered by Charlie Francis, whose credits include R.E.M. and Manic Street Preachers, at Synergy Mastering.