Lurcher Stream Coma EP in Full; Out Friday on Trepanation Recordings
This Friday marks the release of the debut EP Coma (review here) from Welsh newcomers Lurcher through Trepanation Recordings. And thinking of a band’s first short release as showcasing their initial forward potential, the release of Coma is an occasion worth marking. Produced and mixed by guitarist/vocalist Joe Harvatt with engineering by Owain Fleetwood Jenkins and mastering by the esteemed Jaime Gomez Arellano, with Harvatt joined by bassist Tom Shortt and drummer Simon Bonwick, the four-song outing runs 26 minutes — one more track would make it an album, really — and works outward from the immediacy of its opening title-track into more spacious proceedings, its successively longer pieces each giving a more complex picture of the whole.
Harvatt leads the way, and not just on the shred-fest that emerges in the second half of the penultimate “All Now is Here” before the song gives way to about a minute and a half of quiet, sustained tone (though I suppose he’s leading the way there too, since it’s just guitar), but Shortt‘s bass and Bonwick‘s all-in drumming are crucial from the outset. “Coma” itself is a relatively straight-ahead riffer of the Sasquatchian tradition — in the prior review I likened the opener to Cave In for some of its punk-born melodic aspects and I stand by that as well — but it’s the quite-insistent snare of the verse that both tips it over into a more progressive mindset and provides the tension to be contrasted and paid off in the chorus, making the whole track work.
Likewise, the density of low end in “Remove the Myth From the Mountain” is where it gets its crunch, and while the Hendrixy vibe that launches and eventually comes back around in “All Now is Here” is obviously a focal point, it’s Shortt, especially in the hook, that adds the corresponding grunge feel and holds the song together as the guitar goes on its merry, impressive this-fret-and-this-one-and-this-one bluesy jaunt. That’s the stuff of classic power trios, but it’s a formula that isn’t close to being broken as used by Lurcher, and forms just part of what they present on Coma, which transitions smoothly into “All Now is Here” with the aforementioned coda drone, and at nearly nine minutes long, has plenty of room to give each element a chance to shine — multi-channel guitar solo included as keyboard wash adds drama — while emphasizing the songwriting that unites them.
As part of that summary, the heft of “Remove the Myth From the Mountain” returns as part of “Cross to Bear”‘s crescendo as well, but they end with a brief reprise of the softer guitar figure from earlier in the song, offering a more complete picture of the whole. I’ll be frank: I like spending money. And I like spending your money too. But even if you don’t take the jump and preorder one of the woefully limited CDs (50 of them) or tapes (20, with three left as of this writing), take a listen to the stream below, because where one can hear Lurcher have room to grow in terms of chemistry as bands hopefully do with time, the fact that they not only establish an aesthetic here — quickly — but begin to toy with the balance of the characteristics that comprise it is remarkably encouraging. Band to watch in the future? Maybe. Definitely a band to listen to now though.
So go ahead and do that, if you please.
And if you do, enjoy:
Preorder link: https://trepanationrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/coma
LURCHER emerge in 2021 from deepest West Wales with their astonishing debut EP ‘Coma’.
As well as digital download this release will be available on limited edition CD (limited to 50 copies) and cassette (limited to 20 copies).
Lurcher are:
Joe Harvatt – Guitar / Vocals
Tom Shortt – Bass Guitar
Simon Bonwick – Drums
Lurcher, “Coma” official video
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Tags: Coma, Lurcher, Lurcher Coma, Trepanation Recordings, Wales
