It’s got to the point now that any time I find myself coming back to Wasuremono after any significant time away from their music, it feels slightly like coming home. Or at least returning to a place that you didn’t realised you had missed until you find yourself surrounded by its radiant charms. And Wasuremono’s charms are many and as the album opener, title track and recent single Are You OK? washes over me with its hazy, soothing sonics, its slightly oriental, descant vocal harmonies and its blend of the quirky and the ethereal, all seems good in the world.
But knowing that familiarity breeds contempt, the band have always, whilst moulding a wonderful signature sound, used those particular traits merely as a springboard, a launch pad from which to explore some wonderful, tangential musical ideas. Roads less travelled and all that. Even structurally they are happy to do their own thing and whilst most bands seem work from the guitars outwards, Wasuremono prefer to work from the rhythm section up. Phoebe’s bass in particular providing deep rooted melodies upon which guitars add chiming beauty, keys wash around, behind, between and beyond the root notes and drums are happy to emphasises the groove with little show or bluster. Having four voices also gives the band a wonderful dimension and it is the way they layer these vocal textures as much as what they actually sing which really grabs the listener. Vocals aren’t just about communication, they are also instruments in their own right and if you don’t agree, consider this album lesson 1. Make that lessons 1 to 11.
Lonely Type has a wonderful Cure-like feel, yes, a band I all too often reference when reviewing their music but not a bad band to tip your hat to, A Lesson To Learn is full of skittering beats and resonant lead vocals and Nothing is Easy sees them play it straight…well, as straight as they are able…to create something which already feels like an underground anthem, if that isn’t indeed an oxymoron.
Whilst it is easy to pick out post-punk fingerprints and Bowie-esque subversions, Wasuremono is very much a band of the here and now, although their here and now might not be quite where everyone else’s here and now is. But that is what makes their music so great, it’s modern but not conformist, it references the past without pillaging, plundering and plagiarising, it looks to the future but doesn’t feel the need to try to invent new genres. In fact Wasuremono is what pop music could be if only people were brave enough to stop following fad and fashion, convention and convenience. Think about how great the world would sound if everyone started to follow their lead? No, really think about it….
