Out of nowhere this lands in the inbox and i figure i best get on it swift - breton not being the kind of band to wait around, future-pushing post-steppers and south london's supreme. there's a ton of legit hype for next month's full-length debut long player 'other people's problems' but as a little winter warmer january taster we've got this slammed out four-tracker (plus a fan fave tagged onfor good measure) to whet the appetite. this is pretty much the best kind of surprise you can get on a sunny but cold tuesday afternoon.
opener 'ordnance survey' dabbles in sparse, metronomic beats, robot-mad handclaps and of course that mournful, yearning vocal stretching over epic washes of guitar, evolving into a chanting outro that lands maybe in the ocean...maybe on a motorway? either way it's sweetly addictive.
'certain little facts' cracks on with an unmistakable (unless i'm mistaken) patrick lyons (americanlondon poet) sample and straight in with those head nodding cool, soothing bretonian keys and spider-nimble bass runs. this is a space-bound instrumental brought home to land with the closing spoken word, again from lyons - 'it doesn't take a genius to put two and two together when you know certain little facts'. it's a statement as cool, as knowing and as twinkle-charming as the track itself.
'how can they tell' is a warped, vocal driven diamond - anthemic as hell, achingly lost and beautiful, its electronic judders frail and fragile but feisty. the piano refrain, reminiscent of an old hal hartley movie soundtrack, is the clincher and we have a breton instant classic. just wait for that drop down to the guitar and vocals - and more importantly, where they go from there.
we close on the jerking disco of 'sandpaper', a psycho little track leaping from 8-bit sampling to mashed vocals, vaulting walls of buzzing keys, somehow maintaining its strange course, somehow making sense despite the disparity of its constituent parts.
bonus track 'the well' we all know and know well and i'm guessing, love. if not yet, then you will soon.
hell, it's a great little record from the band of 2012 (no doubt) - and it's free, and it's HERE:
http://soundcloud.com/bretonlabs/sets/blanket-rule-ep
