Essential repress! 10"
First time vinyl pressing of Still House Plants' debut cassette, originally appearing as the maiden release on GLARC in 2016 and re-emerges now as the label celebrates its tenth year. As is fairly well known round these parts, the trio went on to issue a series of albums in fairly regular succession and to no little acclaim too, though these four tracks are revealing of a group that were in service of their own clear vision from the get go. Then, as now, they remain tricky to categorise, a slippery confection of post-hardcore/rock dynamics, artrock abstrusion, jazz-y freeness and post-Micachu & the Shapes odd-pop anti-formalism that has at its centre a truly singular vocalist in Jessica Hickie-Kallenbach, both acrobatic and, well, soulful. On first listen, my thoughts immediately jumped to early Dirty Projectors, though over time I've come to find it far less showy than that, skilled of course but kinda scrappy and autodidactic in the instantly charming ways that seem typical of most things connected with Glasgow's Green Door Studios. Perhaps the group do have chops, but that's besides the point - this is mostly defined by feeling, interconnection, and real heart. Still one of the most impressive and radical groups to emerge from the UK underground in recent years.
FFO: Gastr Del Sol, Micachu, Dirty Projectors, Kinsella brothers
