Boarder – Strangers (Amateur Pop Incorporated)
Leicester-based garage rock band Boarder release new fuzz and existentialism track Strangers, via artist-led label Amateur Pop Incorporated.
Artist: Boarder
Track: Strangers
Label: Amateur Pop Incorporated
Released: 9 October 2020
Find it: Bandcamp | Spotify
Even in this year like no other there is the familiar turn of the seasons. That hanging moment between the burning hues of dying leaves against a crisp blue or the darkening hours where sweet decay fills your senses and the sky dips down to kiss you wetly. The fading light, the transitioning in the cycle; here come the reflective times.
Without pomposity or pretence come Boarder with latest single Strangers. The track is earnest in its existential theme – what does it mean to be alive? The question, the exploration, any answer is drenched in fuzzy-echo guitar pacing a sludgy rhythm, before bright sparks of percussion and chiming melody lines wind their way through. Early ’90s Grunge ghosts through the sound but this is not a track, or a band, mired in nostalgia for their influences but rather one finding their own authenticity within this established mix.
About the song the band said, “Strangers is a song I wrote while working in a bar on minimum wage and contemplating what it really means to be alive. Fast forward to 2020 where leaving the house could mean the difference between life and death – it feels almost symbolic of the times we’re living in.”
When navigating these uncertain times, or facing down those big questions, there has to be some familiarity to ground yourself to. Here, that comes in those fuzz rock and Grunge influences – the band names Thee Oh Sees, you can hear the dishevelled resentment of early Blur and the melodic dissonance of 18th Dye but there’s contemporary comparisons too; the scuzzy lines of Bleached, and although buried deeper the juxtaposed sharp vocal against those dirty riffs that The Winter Passing also do so well. Yes, there’s the familiarity to tether yourself while letting yourself step into the void.
Having teamed up with artist-focused label Amateur Pop Incorporated it feels like Boarder may well be readying to push forward and bring that sound to a wider audience – we’d certainly recommend getting this and previous 2020 single Chew Me Up on your rotation.
Strangers by Boarder is out now on all digital platforms via Amateur Pop Incorporated.
Find Boarder: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook| Spotify | Bandcamp
Image: Shyla
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Sarah Lay
A long-standing music journalist she's also co-founder of independent record label Reckless Yes, an author of novels, and when not messing around with words and music, a digital strategist.
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