Continuing their odyssey into what they call desert funk, Esteban are, for me, one of the most exciting emerging bands in the UK at the minute. Their debut EP, Santiago, was impressive indeed, and Deep Breath is both a direct sequel to that release – it shares a cover art scheme – as well as a significant step up in the band’s powers. The core of this new EP is it’s bouyant title track, which like ‘Say It Loud’ on Santiago, is the irrepressibly upbeat, uplifting anthem on which everything else hinges. The chorus of ‘Deep Breath’ is even more sparkling than any that the band have put on record before, and the song is, like the rest of this EP, even more convincingly funky that Santiago was.

A lot of that is down to Liam Ryan’s guitar work, which is as shimmeringly proficient as ever; but this is a band which operates as a real unit, as much so on record as during their hugely energetic live shows. This tightness of musicianship has allowed the band to explore some slightly new territory here, and accordingly the songs have become a little more ambitious and structurally complex. The best example of this is ‘How Did I Get Here?’ which features a sudden quieter section, allowing the funk guitar to meander freely in space under Steve Wright’s vocals. The song also displays a newfound love for vocal harmonies, which come together with the song’s main body to craft its busy but thoroughly enjoyable climax.

Even though this is still another very small snippet of Esteban’s desert funk manifesto, there’s also something reassuring about that. I’m confident that the band have it in them to craft a great full-length album, and hopefully that’s something that they will do in the near future. In the meantime, this is a glorious funk-rock confection.
87%

Esteban on MySpace