Following up on their self titled E.P. from last year, which included our favourite single, Stay Away, La Bête Blooms are back with new single, Nothing Left But The Taste. You can take a listen to the song for yourself in the music stream below, which the band are describing as a teaser of what’s to come, which you might be fooled into thinking is a pretty firm indication that they’ve been working on a full album release. However, the new single will be the first release from an upcoming, as yet untitled follow-up EP.
While the stream is available to listen to immediately, it will be officially released on the 17th October 2015 to coincide with Cassette Store Day, the lesser known, eighties-child cousin of Record Store Day. It’ll be bundled up with single Summer and it probably won’t be be too long after this before we see their next EP hitting the cassette store too, if there is such a thing.
The song itself is a grunge and alt rock slacker of a track with a heavy course of phase shifted electric guitar rhythm running right the way through it, along with some classic garage rock overdrive. It makes occasional smart halts to accentuate the precipice leap of the song and the bass lines are pumped-up, which you can hear most in the short solo that takes over a couple of times.
Vocally it’s strong with a mix of coarse, ripped growls and laid back lines from lead singer Daniel Mawer, who has made a solid transition from the punk rock of Stay Away to the grunge of Nothing Left But The Taste. It’s a much subtler proposition than the sheer headbutt direction of their last single release at the start of the year, making a good progression for the band who sound better than ever on the new track.
The feedback showers, pounding drums and moments of sparsity are proof that the band is evolving into the finer points of alt-rock brilliance and we’re looking forward to hearing Summer to find out if they got lucky or it’s a development that’s here to stay.
Lyrics are hard to make out at times, but that’s not always a bad thing and it kind of works well in the melancholy landscape of the song. It talks about life that’s overshadowed by the pain of a breakup, which is something that we can all empathise with, and while you can look at this from an angst hating stand-point, it manages to talk about post relationship blues with a sense of the naivety of youth. It asks “are you better off alone”, implying that sometimes you’ve just got to cut the cord.
Nothing But The Taste is a big return for La Bête Blooms, helped along the way with production by Matt Peel (Pulled Apart By Horses, Eagulls, Misty Miller). It manages to be upbeat and addictive despite it’s darker content, tapping into a similar spirit to Love Will Tear Us Apart in the process and making it a worthy contender for a place in any hard core indie disco track list.
La Bête Blooms, Nothing Left But The Taste review: 4.2/5
absolutley brilliant
brilliant song by a brilliant band