Around 2009 there was a sudden flurry of interest in ambitious, slightly esoteric guitar music. It was basically impossible to walk round a record shop without knocking over an end-of-aisle Bitte Orca display.
The excitement about bookish, university town deconstructed rock music might have abated slightly, but Portland’s AU are still exploring the perimeters of the guitar band form. ‘Solid Gold’ starts out sounding like a long-forgotten Welsh ecclesiastical song, before the band gradually erect different calypso-tinged structures, lilting harmonies, and samba drum patterns. Excellent fun.
‘Solid Gold’ is out 9 January on Leaf.
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