Coming on like a lost Zoo Records album from the heady days of Liverpool’s burgeoning post-punk melting pot, Heat, like most bands looking for a way to muscle through the madding musical crowd, walk a fine line between reflection and forward thinking. Looking back it captures everything that was great about a certain line of lush, hazy, shoegaze, but does so in a totally natural and uncalculated way, making for, if it isn’t indeed a mutually exclusive idea, a sound that is both wonderfully ragged and totally on the nail.
And what stops this being just a walk through past dreamscape glories is the fact that whilst the clay that they work with is familiar the wonderfully delicate sculpture that emerges from their musical kiln is still new and inspiring, modern and unique. The song writing brings something new to a table which is becoming a popular place to be again and from its slacker wooziness to its beat driven urges to the intricate details that emerge from the subtle washes of sound which swoosh about, this is very much an album that seeks to create it’s own mythology rather than re-appropriate someone else’s.
If the term slacker-shoegaze hasn’t already been claimed then grab the copyright now as you may just find that Heat will be at the centre of just such an emerging movement.
