GAPS

Hometown: Brighton
Lineup: Rachel and Ed
For fans of: Jon Hopkins, Four Tet, Kate Bush
Key tracks: ‘Cascade’, ‘Keep You’
See them live: Shacklewell Arms, London, 20 May
Connect: Facebook | SoundCloud | Twitter | YouTube

Brighton duo GAPS introduced themselves earlier this year with one of the most self-effacing email notes we’ve read in ages.

No generic biography or broody press pic, rather a short, sweet message listing their inspirations – red wine, guitars and seagulls – signed off simply “Ed”. Even better, tagged onto this tentative email was a batch of tracks brimming with promise; a breathtakingly well-balanced combo of electronic and organic sounds, not a world removed from Kate Bush cooing over Four Tet’s sparsest beat experiments.

GAPS have gathered momentum since those early demos – which included the solemnly thrumming ‘When I’m Gone’ and the haunting, piano-plinking ‘Belong’ – revealing themselves to be old school friends Ed and Rachel and performing string of poised live dates across London recently.

Most importantly though, the duo announced their debut single proper; a AA-side ‘Cascade’/Keep You’, to be released via SEXBEAT on 15 July. The brittle-sounding ‘Cascade’ ebbs and flows with salty acoustic guitars and cacophonous gull samples while ‘Keep You’ floats along on Rachel’s foamy vocals and bristling synthesizers. It’s as surefooted a debut single as we’ve heard this year and we’re delighted to have the exclusive first play of ‘Keep You’s ultra-immersive visuals below.

GAPS will fill up a space in your heart that you never even knew you had.