The Student Playlist

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REVIEW: Weirds – ‘Swarmculture’ (Alcopop!)

  • 7/10
    - 7/10
7/10

Summary

Leeds four-piece Weirds have released a powerful and seductive debut album that leaves plenty of room for evolution in the future.

Not many bands can boast almost ten years of preparation before releasing a debut album. Barely in their mid-twenties, fresh faces Weirds have been playing music together since their days buried in classroom textbooks at school. Since surpassing their time at school, the four friends from Leeds have spent the last three years working on their first full-length release. Whether the name Weirds references the music or members involved, their sound arrives as a mismatch of neighbouring genres, yet each working seamlessly and without ill-fitting fringes.

Weirds’ debut Swarmculture forms an unlikely partnership: grunge meets psychedelia. Its fierce resurrected ‘90s attitude conjoined with the outlandish reverb and unlikely synth blankets explores largely uncharted waters. However, despite its authentic qualities, it sounds oddly familiar.

READ MORE: In conversation with Weirds

The entire record retains vicious power in its hooks and melodies, with first track ‘Things That Crawl’ wasting no time in introducing the group’s pent-up magnitude, delivering each riff with thunderous weight. ‘Past Life’ delivers similar qualities expect this time brooding with a flickering bounce to the lead riff. ‘Valley Of Vision’ skips between driving comparisons to My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless and infectious pop-induced structures. Something Swarmculture consistently floats within, the intermittent bursts of power arriving wedged between intricate, layering arrangements.

Aidan Razzell’s vocal rarely strays away from the album’s venom. Though at times his rasping discontent feels a little overproduced for its surroundings, the loss of grit is salvaged by his stylistically offbeat relationship with the instruments that surround him. His machine-gun verse delivery creates emotive turbulence and should take a more obvious role in the next instalment of Weirds’ discography.

Whether or not Weirds’ Swarmculture will prove itself as a leg-up into a more focal point of the public gaze remains to be seen, but as a debut it is well within the realms of commendable. Its solid and fiery character offers unique aspects to draw from and is an exciting prospect for the Northern music scene’s spinning wheel of talent. (7/10) (Ollie Rankine)

Listen to Swarmculture here via Spotify, and tell us what you think below!

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