Triptides – Going Under/Satin Skies

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As brief and exciting as a mouthful of popping candy, Indiana band Triptides’ double A side ‘Going Under/Satin Skies‘ is a sparkly pop teaser for the band’s debut album Psychic Summer, which is set to be released next month.

With a sound indebted as much to the influence of cool waves and sea-salt kisses as to skittering sixties surf pop, ‘Going Under’ and ‘Satin Skies’ are the aural equivalent of what people who live in cities think of, when they dream about giving it all up and moving to the coast. There’s the classic sounding riffing guitar reminding you that it’s all a bit vintage and Beach Boys, there’s a laid-back but upbeat drum line suggesting that sometime later, there probably will be dancing – and maybe a keg, and it all hops along with that relaxed energy some people have even when they are sitting down because they spend time outdoors doing healthy things – like swimming or playing volleyball.

Musically, both ‘Going Under’ and ‘Satin Skies’ are well-crafted, but they maintain the raw edge of the lo-fi, we-normally-play-in-a-garage sound that stops it feeling twee. It doesn’t seem contrived, or too much like something we could call ‘hazy’, and dismiss as a fad, and yet it does feel quite ‘now’, though maybe simply in that way good, hooky pop always feels relevant. Of the two, ‘Satin Skies’ is the more interesting, with a Beatles-esque reversy guitar sound that turns the whole thing into a kind of beachy psychedelia. Sleigh bells are shaken, and an interestingly energetic drum line chugs along beneath very prominent cymbal crashes, which are allowed to ring out causing the mix to feel heady and light – continuing the theme of psychedelia, and feeling pretty appropriate for the song’s title.

It is because Triptides so plainly wear their musical hearts on their sleeves that the tracks are convincing – it’s interesting, but there’s no trying too hard to be clever, or being complicated for the sake of it. Hell – it’s tanned, it’s toned and it looks good in a two-piece (it’s a double A side – geddit?), being complicated is for pasty kids with puppy fat and no date for this Friday’s totally awesome beach party.

‘Going Under/Satin Skies‘ is available from Triptides bandcamp page for however much you wish to pay, and the LP Psychic Summer will be released in July on Beach Tapes.