single of the week: haunted stereo

Hot on the heels of their third EP Cross The Sea, praised by Q Magazine as “something genuinely beautiful”, Southampton-based six-piece Haunted Stereo release their first 7″ single this week – a double A-side, no less, giving us two more reasons to love them. Regular readers of Wears The Trousers might remember the band from their vibrant rendition of ‘Santy Anno’ on our Odetta tribute compilation from last year, but this ever-shifting creative bunch rarely stick to one style.

What these two new cuts have in common, aside from the imagination poured by the bucketload into their arrangements, is a compelling urgency. ‘On A Pin’, jostles out of the gate with a crisp beat and some nimble piano, morphing briefly at the midpoint into a strident folk-rock number. Singer Anja McCloskey sounds more forceful than ever as the band whip up into a controlled frenzy. The urgency of ‘Lock The Doors’, on the other hand, is a far more sinister entity. Lewis Ford takes the lead vocals here over stalking piano and a portentous violin riff, quivering with a nervous energy that translates admirably well from their live shows into the studio.

Haunted Stereo have been called a variety of things in their relatively short lifespan. It’s about time ‘genius’ made its way into that lexicon.

See them for yourselves and the following venues over the next couple of months:

21.05.10 Hamptons, Southampton
23.05.10 Bloody Awful Poetry @ Old Queen’s Head, London
27.05.10 Fast Fox, Southsea
05.06.10 Ejector Seat Arts Festival, Southampton
13.06.10 Sellindge Festival, Sellindge
10.07.10 Eastleigh Music Festival, Eastleigh
16.07.10 The Birdcage, Southsea
31.07.10 The Longest Day Festival, Brighton

Buy vinyl from Sotones Records.
Buy MP3s from iTunes.

In the interests of disclosure, we acknowledge that Anja McCloskey is one of our longest serving contributors. So, are we biased? Never! Check out what Stereokill and Right Where You Are Sitting Now! have to say about the single.

Written by: Alan Pedder

Tags: haunted stereo, lock the doors, on a pin

This entry was posted on Monday, May 17th, 2010 at 6:45 am and is filed under reviews, single of the week. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.