It picks at jangling sixties guitar threads but this is Byrdsian sonic territory as seen through a late 80’s lens and the psychedelic undercurrents remain just that rather than take the listener down into acid-laced and claustrophobic waters. Gut Splinter is light to the touch but deftly constructed, layered and textured rather than spacious and sparse, it re-imagines the past rather than revisits it, and does so by cherry picking all the cool vibes from across the decades and fashioning them into both a past that never was and therefore a future which just might be.
In our post-genre, non-tribal, musical fluid world, Nova Flares is the equivilant of a skinny-jeaned indie kid wearing a Beach Boys t-shirt, clutching a Dream Syndicate album, whistleing a My Bloody Valentine tune (if that is even practical) as they make their way to a Warlocks gig. Maybe this is the point of conception for a whole new The Paisley Overground! Wouldn’t that be something?