There’s nothing glamorous or ‘now’ about calling your own music indie. In fact, it’s a bit of a kamikaze decision at a time when anything that even remotely resembles the beige guitar rock of the past few years can barely scratch a chart filled with boy bands and industry approved hip-hop/grime (the distinction between the two, of course, being which side of the Atlantic you come from). The labelling of your own music in such a manner is even more beguiling when there’s a whole range of other terms that would be infinitely more fitting, as in the case of London’s League.
Maybe it’s a case that the duo were confused by what their forerunners stood for – MGMT, who the band almost certainly consciously try to mimic, might have appeared on the front of NME, but they’re a world away from the landfill sounds of The Enemy and The Courteneers. This is spangling electro-pop that thankfully misses it’s intended target of being Empire of the Sun echoing radio freindly snapshots and instead reaches far greater heights. There’s little within the few tracks that suggest at an act looking to push the boundaries, but it seems that the band have just enough good records in their collection to be fumbling around similar ground anyway, with a hint of Crystal Castles lurking just in the background of everything they do (and therefore, the spectre of HEALTH isn’t far away, either). It’s certainly accessible, but you get the feeling that it’s nowhere near as universal as they’d like to think – which turns out to be the most remarkable, arresting thing about them.
League – Come out Hyper
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