There is a lot of this jangly indie/punk/emo crossover coming out at the moment, wouldn’t you agree? You know the types, twinkly guitars, out of tune but catchy vocals giving anyone a hope to front a band, emotive and heartfelt lyrics. Sounds familiar doesn’t it. Well Glocca Morra are another band producing such a sound and their new EP ‘An Obscure Moon Lighting An Obscure World’ contains everything stated above.
As I am new to the sounds of Glocca Morra, I checked out their older material and it appears that they have softened their sound slightly. Developing the typical indie sound most people associate with its done a lot but these guys are doing it well enough to be deemed a credible band.
It’s a short release (it lasts around 13 minutes) of six tracks containing seemingly similar songs, but on a number of listens you can pick out the stand out tracks and features. ‘Gun Control’ is a strong song, with a driving guitar chord progression strengthening the vocal lines of the verse. Its chorus is simple but it has the right criteria- with the lyrics merely chanting “Don’t call my name, this will never be the same” it is sure to be a crowd pleaser at lives shows; its simplicity and ease to recall the lyrics certainly makes this a stand out track. The duel vocals on ‘For Lauren Lee’ brings a more uplifting tone in contrast to its previous track, it contains a real quaint jangly, twiddly guitar riff in the second chorus and again adds to that uplifting feeling of the track.
The definitive track on this release and my personal favourite is closing track ‘Deep Pocket’ which showcases the true all round sound of this band. What seems clear from this band is the layers they can apply to their songs, they take something simple like a three chord progression and add to it making the song as interesting as possible and progressing that simplicity until it becomes this layered interesting sound by the time the tracks end. The aggression that seems to have lacked in this release returns in this track and it is a burst of energy. There is of course the contrasting vocals, the dulcet tone of the dual vocals provides a nice opposing vocal style also.
The truth is I am not the biggest fan of this genre of music, I don’t hate it though because bands like Glocca Morra make it interesting and fun to listen to, they combine that punk and indie style together nicely, although I would like to hear a bit more aggression in the tracks it is a delight listening to this.
3.5/5
‘An Obscure Moon Lighting An Obscure World’ by Glocca Morra is out now on Kind Of Like Records.
Glocca Morra links: Facebook
Words by Robert Maddison (@bertmaddison)
