GROW – Don’t Forget The Flowers EP
The six-track EP, Don’t Forget The Flowers, from local jam-groove outfit GROW, feels like a long time in the making.
The Halifax four-piece burst on to the Calderdale scene at the start of 2025 with a double-A sided single featuring Your Own Time and Take It And Run. Both songs showcased the band’s freewheeling nature, bobbing between rag-like piano and breezy vocals, with flourishes of indie-pop and light funk thrown in for good measure.
Two more tracks followed, the seductively hazy, lounge-ish River Rocks and the rising ballad-pop of Flowers. All four were recorded at Buffalo Studios in Castleford and produced by JB Pilon, who has worked in iconic studios such as Abbey Road, RAK, Konk, Livingston and Cloud Hills in Hamburg.
Independent venue The Grayston Unity have championed the band from the very beginning, with owner Michael Ainsworth granting them a number of early gigs. On listening to the Buffalo Studio recordings, Michael was so impressed he promptly started his own label – Grayston Unity Records – in order to get the songs out into the world. And here they are – now presented along with two new, unreleased tracks, The Garden and Before We Go.
First up, The Garden – a dreamy, melodious stroll, instinctively catchy and bubbling with melody. It’s soft and trippy; less 70s rock, more late ‘60s pop. Before We Go treads a similar path, albeit it a much gentler pace. Flush harmonies, choral tones and tingling keys come together to create a quite magical, ethereal world.
As well as benefitting from JB Pilon’s production skills, the EP was mastered by Alan Douches (Fleetwood Mac, Sufjan Stevens, Animal Collective) and such depth of experience shines through. Melding the romance of nostalgia and the gravitas of the modern era, Grow draw on the artistry of classic songwriters like Neil Young, Pink Floyd and Steely Dan – and they do so to great effect. Enjoy!
Resonance & John Haycock featuring Dan Bridgwood-Hill – What Remains
Known for their captivating multi-sensory live events, where they use sonic vibrations and somatics to create transformative experiences, I can only imagine that resonance and John Haycock would find it a challenge committing to vinyl recordings. But here we are – and on this evidence, any perceived challenges have been overcome.
Originally performed and recorded live at Hope Baptist Chapel in Hebden Bridge in 2023, the album uses kora, clarinet, violin, guitar and electronics. It was produced by resonance founders Matthew Williams and Adam Kahan and mastered in Berlin by Arnold Kasar.
The album comes in the form of eight tracks, but they essentially represent as one continuous piece here. It artfully captures a representative chunk of the vast soundscapes that you encounter at resonance, encapsulating the entire experience in a highly-energising and vibrant 42-minute journey.
The esoteric latitude that can grace their typically vast five-hour events is inevitably trimmed and what remains (quite literally) is a ride that is compact and relentlessly zestful.
As the album opens up, scales, light touch synths and angelic drones combine to create a collage of heavenly highs. The centre of the album edges into slightly more cavernous, dark-folk territory, before dispersing as some sort of timeless vapour trail through Flow State parts 1 & 2. We close with a trio of serene tracks – Seraph, Supra Infra and Embers – that soothe, becalm and transport. But throughout, the emotive pull is gently upwards.
What Remains works wonders as both a standalone piece and a representation of resonance events. Hearing is believing.
Follow resonance and John Haycock on Instagram.
Stormhavn – Old Haworth
A deep brooding underpins hushed beauty on Old Howarth, the new single from Stormhavn (aka Andrew Smith) a classically-trained harpist known for his rich, minimalist, folk-oriented compositions. Its light trickle of keys and plucked strings reflect the emerging landscape that Andrew observed during his weekly trips through the local moorland.
As Andrew says “I wanted the piece to be able to hold space, to reflect the ever changing nature of the landscape, but also support a sense of identity.”
It’s backed by second track, Out On t’Moors, a somewhat more vibrant, animated offering that is no less delicate. Its lush, dancing orchestration portrays the more colourful, dynamic aspect of our moors, and serves as a fitting counter-point to Old Howarth.
Nothing against Charli XCX, but if only he’d been given the job of soundtracking the new Wuthering Heights film.
Committee of Sleep – Ruling Overturned EP
The four-piece northern band, Committee of Sleep, are firmly fixed on your affected, alt-rock heart and they come at it with a slew of lo-fi weaponry to boot.
Fronted by songwriter Olly Lightfoot, whose 2022 cancer diagnosis informs much of the band’s lyrics, their music explores themes of love, loss, renewal and gratitude.
Pixies influences abound on opener, Desire Lines, which cuts in with a crunchy Gigantic-esque chord sequence, before a dark-rock stranglehold gradually steers the song into more introspective, poetic waters.
Second song, Space Time, is a more slouchy venture, encased in early-shoegaze desolation vibes. The gloomy march of Still Life evokes the slow-motion alt-rock of US band Tortoise, while the cheekily-titled Planet of Chocolate Bars moves us to a more intensely heartfelt space, one that is rich in narrative. The EP closes with the delicately frayed and fringed Ultra Vivid Dream, a fitting ode, no doubt, to the 80s/90s band of similar name – Ultra Vivid Scene.
Follow Committee Of Sleep for news of future releases and gig dates.
Leave a Reply