RHUM

Merseyside four piece Wave Machines elicit a peculiar conundrum of contradictions.  Their music seems to be lost in vortex of myriad influences, like a vintage jumble of sweetshop confectionery – rhubarb and custards mixed in with pear drops and chocolate mice. It’s an eclectic indie tuck shop, everything and nothing, the eternal dichotomy of pick ’n’ mix. Luckily, Wave If You’re Really There lies just on the side of everything, which makes it really rather capital indeed.

Electro woogie beats and bass underpin the upbeat moments with a gully scally flurry of 80s nostalgia and 808 rimshots. Slickly sick and understated with lo-fi funk, it is in these moments the Wave Machines shine, radiating the sort of carefree originality that begets greatness.

Reminiscent of an early Hot Chip, before the pressure of being a real band coalesced them into conservative commercialism, Wave Machine’s middle class pastiche funk and body popping boogie seeps with unintentional cool. It’s all very specky and spoddy, like Dexter’s Laboratory meets a Barry White impersonator by way of Talking Heads, but strangely compulsive in a sleeper way.

This is not an album that shines with instant accessibility. It took a few listens to really ‘get it’. I found myself humming away to songs I didn’t even know I liked almost subconsciously – craving Waves Machine’s luxuriously low-key stylings with a lethargic ferocity.

Bands that display simplistic complexities are always to be applauded, people that are all like ‘yeah, our string section is from a sample pack, we’re poor, but it works’. And Wave Machines are just that. The faint shade of chartism pertains (which is not a diss), but this early on in their career it is a joy to hear a fresh group with obvious ears towards a feel good melody express themselves with alt-abandon.

4/5 stars

Standout tracks: I Go I Go I Go, Keep The Lights On, The Greatest Escape We Ever Made

Wave If You're Really There is out now through Shock Records