When you think about pop music, the norm is on the safer side of the musical spectrum, but it has never been so unadulterated than in Hinds single, Bamboo. Following their legally-nudged name change last year from their previous Deers moniker, Hinds has gone from strength to wild strength and the single is a huge positive sign that you can’t keep a good band down.
The Madrid-based band is made up of four mad-cap Spanish senoras with Carlotta and Ana on lead vocals and guitars, Ade on bass and Amber on drums. While that sounds like a classic four-piece pop formation, what comes out the other end sounds like nothing you’ve heard before.
Bamboo first made its way onto their Bandcamp page back in 2013, but as they’ve built up at least two names for themselves over the years, the track has finally made it out as the lead single for their debut album, Leave Me Alone. The song is an irreverent garage pop addiction that left us spinning it on loop for days with entwining rhythm guitar that makes you want to break out from the tedium of the 9 to 5 and do something more exciting instead.
Carlotta and Ana’s vocals wrap around each other as much as the guitars and while there’s a casual inclination to it all there’s also a lot of quality too, in a brilliantly unrefined way. The lyrics are just as unfettered as the song itself with some class lines ranging from “how could I show you without looking freaking mad” to “I know you’re not hangover today, you are classifying your cassettes”. We’re not always sure what they mean, and there’s surely at least a little lost in translation, but we love them all the same.
The video, which you can check out below to listen to the song for yourself, was recorded when they were still called Deers back in 2014, and features them hanging around their house and neighbourhood, dancing around and generally having a hoot and a half by the look of things. It’s a mix of time in Barcelona and Madrid before Ade and Amber joined the band, which is why they’re not in it, but it definitely captures the free-spirited nature of their music perfectly.
Bamboo may well be a bit of a re-release single on the back of the new album, but it’s the kind of song that’s going to feel fresh and new even when you’re old, wrinkly, bald and distinctly lacking in dance moves. It makes for a very strong introduction to Hinds (née Deers) and with the kind of wild gigs that they’re getting a name for and the support they’ve had from other bands like The Strokes, we’ve got high expectations for the four Spaniards.
Hinds, Bamboo review: 5/5
