Bristol’s wych elm return with raw expression on single ‘Monkey Jaw’, and announce debut EP ‘Rat Blanket’ due in March.

Even at such an early stage in wych elm’s career, the Bristol band have build their own unique, uncompromising sound.

They harness the hard corners of alternative rock and drop into noise rock territory, without their identity becoming at all lost. That’s without mentioning the dreamlike air of melancholy on display, best witnessed on Bag of Worms or School Shooter. The band give off an American college band vibe, a strangely personal somewhat long lost 90’s Seattle sound. Perhaps i’m just the sentimental type of music fan, where a little something means everything.

Monkey Jaw, which comes in at 2 minutes flat, opens with a sludgy bass line and an distorted angular-ish guitar line which sets the scene for Caitlin Elliman’s otherwordly storytelling abilty/ modern-day exorcism. Help Me continues where Monkey Jaw finishes (and part of the same release), it rattles and shakes with the same alternative rock promise and could be a long lost treasure from Pixies‘ Doolittle sessions, jam-like with a dark-as-fuck underbelly.

wych elm‘s forthcoming EP, entitled Rat Blanket, is released March 22nd through Post Mortem Records and is limited to 250 copies on vinyl. The band will play a free London launch show at The Social, London on March 22nd supported by fellow Bristolians Cruelty. Free DICE Tickets here.

READ MORE

Crows – ‘Chain of Being’ – A vast and cavernous return.

Black Country, New Road – ‘Athen’s, France’ – Dark, gritty, off-the-wall post-rock debut.

Cruelty – ‘Disgraced’ – Bristol’s hardest hitting new post-punks release debut single. 

By Karl Johnson

FB // Twitter // Instagram // Radio // Hype-M