For Safe Suburban Home’s exclusive cassette release comes duo Kimber. Artists who certainly lay their emotions out there.
Throughout the summer the team behind Safe Suburban Home have been hard at work with their monthly physical releases. Ones that are exclusively on cassette. Now, SSH bring something a bit different. Northern electronica, a two-piece Yorkshire band with the tracks, ‘‘Think I Know the Answer/Like Shadows on The Wall’.
Mikey Wilson and Josh Heffernan are the two behind the tracks. Being close friends and multi-instrumentalists they finally found their sound early this year. Now set to let the world listen to what they’ve had in the making. And wait, there’s more! They only went and recorded it full DIY home studio. Going full fort mattress and duvet divine with their record booth construction. Using what they call “traditional rock instruments” with analogue synths, creating a shadowy sound and delicate charm.
‘Think I Know the Answer’ is provided with subtle vocals, packed with melody and dark Bauhaus. Neither it is happy nor sad. It drenches you fully in gig night madness and stories of road trips through California. While you’re by the side of a road with nothing but a fire for warmth. Because I have definitely been to America. Racing you through the track as the lyrics float around again and again it prepares you for the sudden ending. Leaving you hanging on for more of the story. It’s a track you can certainly hear as the backing for an indie film. Come on, you know the one. This is a track I’ve had to listen to again and again. Simply to pick everything up in it. You pick up on different things within the song. Grief, sadness, but yet there’s hope and madness compiled into one.
A real sense of emotion and understanding whilst you hang on to feeling. A yellow rose as it still blooms, you see shadows melt onto the petals as they float away. That’s how it feels. There’s a sad positivity within the song. Not simply the lyrics. But the melodies, subsiding with the bass-lines that together create a dimness. Kimber have a folk feel, there’s a definitive sense of the country and where we are. One we’re unsure of. A very present tune that creates an understanding for the madness of our times.
You already know who Kimber are simply through this one track. You can sense a deep level of emotion and understanding with the duo. Listening to another track you would fully know who Kimber are. It’s not something that came about overnight. Being long-term friends since 2009, they found their sound this year. With a shared love of production and making things fit for themselves, they found their vision. The results of the home studio are a testament to what the duo can create. If they can create this with pillows, who knows what else is yet to come!?
It’s the same with their song, ‘Like Shadows on the Wall’ a much more poppy vibe yet tasselled with a sense of drama. Jumping throughout there’s a sense of pace, melting with backing vocals to help you latch on. Whispering instrumentals, bouncing to 80s melodramatic beats. There’s a feeling of 80s indie, teenage angst that’s just more genuine. It’s a perfect crossover sound, wavy electronic beats, with a guitar ever-so slightly providing a rock sound. And a classic pop feel, not forgetting essential indie. It’s familiar, yet different. A modern ballad, full of romance and drama. What’s not to like?
Kimber is a sound that is in the obscure realms of music. Sitting between natural and experimentation. There’s a relatability within the tracks, drawing you in to the realness they present. It’s not another love story song, even if it may seem that way. It uncovers the beauty in something difficult. Allowing for personal issues to be on the sleeve of their track. Something that may be seen as overwhelming is actually charming and genuine. Many artists will lay their emotions out for you in a way that you hear it in one. There are layers to the emotion Kimber provide. You have to go back again to understand exactly what their narrative is, and you, pick-up on new things within the track again.
In light of things at the moment, it is refreshing to have a duo who are creating music that reflects austerity and confusion. It’s not necessarily a happy or sad song. There’s a feeling of identifying with confusion, madness and destruction. Where you are able to unpick issues and tie them back together again. Unlike a lot of artists, Kimber are being real. They aren’t painting over anything. And although music is often meant to take you away from the issues, something that is left open is important. Kimber create music that is for them. At the moment there’s nothing to really describe the feeling of this year. Music not only represents how you feel, but it’s also a sentiment to what goes on in society. It reflects the feelings of people and the stories of the day. Kimber are on the way to be the band that shows that. Not because they do it on purpose. Because they translate their emotion and how they feel in that one period through their instruments. You can hear it in each track. That’s the exact way music should be.
These two songs define what Kimber are all about. When you really understand an artist through what they create it makes their work even more special. And the great thing is, not a lot of artists can say that. In sending their emotions fully onto these two tracks it unleashes a want for more. A lot of artists find being genuine quite difficult. Thankfully, we don’t have to say that for Kimber.
Listen to the two tracks here, and follow them too!
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