Well, that was unexpected. In a good way. Actually, make that in a great way. When you read the accompanying blurb and see the words “Heavily influenced by the guitar-driven sounds of the 90’s” your mind starts to conjure any number of sounds of that heinous decade…cliched Brit-pop, overly-earnest alt-rock…or worse…grunge! But I’m happy to report that Look Out Below is none of those things…it’s much, much better.
Nick Sumner and The Assistance seem to work with space and textures as much as they do musical lines, chords and notes and the result is a gorgeous piece of fluid and sensual indie which seems to push up against the more commercial end of prog-rock as much as it does cinematic pop.
Very often, as a reviewer, you write up a piece of music and then it quickly fades away as you immerse yourself in the next sonic task. On the strength of Look Out Below I have jotted down the band name on a post-it note so that I can further explore them in a non-work, no obligation, comfort of my own home real world environment. It might not seem like a big deal but it is something which rarely happens in this office. You should do the same.
