(2022) Flyying Colours - Flyying Colours    


Review:
Australian shoegaze combo Flyying Colours arrive fully formed on their debut self-titled EP. Equal parts guitar overdrive and melodic grace, they mix together the best parts of bands like Ride, Chapterhouse, and My Bloody Valentine to come up with a sound that’s derivative yet so full of energy and hooks that it won’t really bother anyone that they’ve heard it before. Plus, not too many original shoegaze bands, or the scores of imitators who have followed, have written a song as sticky sweet and thrilling as “Wavygravy.” The other four songs aren’t weak sisters either; any one of them would have found a safe home on Nowhere or Whirlpool. Everything about the band is rock solid; the fuzzily intertwined guitars of Brodie J Brümmer and Gemma O’Connor, the pair’s calm vocal harmonies, and the steady pulse and churning dynamics of the rhythm section all work together to make the EP a very promising first splash. The little bit of grit and sonic power the group adds to the shoegaze template helps make it really pop too, giving the songs plenty of muscle to go with the swooning melancholy. If you have any affinity at all for classic shoegaze bands and want something new to add to your collection, you could do a lot worse than this. Flyying Colours are hardly reinventing the shoegaze/noise pop wheel, they are just doing it extremely well and that’s definitely good enough. — AMG

***

Flyying Colours’ second record, 2015’s ROYGBIV EP, shows that that first one was no fluke, and they continue to adhere to the tenets of being successful revivalists. Rule one is to lock down the basis of the sound you are reviving; next, you need to bring something unique to the party that gives listeners a compelling reason to tune in and not just spin Nowhere for the 1,000th time. Flyying Colours nail the first part, and manage the second just as easily. How, one might inquire? They have a graceful, unhurried quality to their approach that is pretty unique among their contemporaries. They glide where other bands might grind; they cruise where other bands work up a stinky sweat trying to make as much historically accurate noise as possible; they basically set the controls to relaxed and leave them there. The songs are very catchy — “Running Late” is this EP’s bid for immortality — and they do make some noise here and there, like on the almost animated “Not Today” and the oddly baggy “Leaks,” which ends the album with a little bit of Madchester funk. But really, Flyying Colours are the laid-back, sun-soaked member of the retro gaze family. Not that there’s a problem with that when the sound they have is so assured and pleasing, and the songs are so strong. — AMG


   


Track List:
01 - Like You Said
02 - Wavygravy
03 - She Leaves
04 - Feathers
05 - Bugs
06 - I Don't Want to Let You Down
07 - Running Late
08 - Not Today
09 - In the End
10 - Leaks


Media Report:
Genre: indie-rock, shoegaze
Country: Melbourne, Australia
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)


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