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Feb 13, 2014 Web Exclusive By Tom Fenwick

Having skirted the periphery of the music scene for a few years, British duo John Hamson Jr. and Marcus Pepperell—who first found fame as two thirds of disbanded also-rans Push Tiger Tail—found themselves at a dead end. In an effort to turn things around the pair began collaborating on new songs which took musical cues from Hamson’s expansive approach to drumming and took lyrical inspiration from their lifelong friendship, the results of which form their hugely self-assured debut Galore.

Overlaying an intense percussive bounce with shimmers of synth, horn, bass, and guitar, they create reverberant melodies and an idiosyncratic sound that vibrates from the poignant and tender (“Dancing’s Done,” “Now We Are Sixteen”) to the hook-laden and infectious (“Tame,” “Come On Strong,”

“Unkinder (A Tougher Love)”). Although perhaps the album’s greatest triumph is managing to retain its sense of joy without falling into saccharine smugness—the bittersweet edges of their songwriting and the quality of their music make sure it never gets too sickly. Indeed the songs seem utterly fresh, imbued with an aural sense memory that transports you back to lost summers and nostalgic snapshots of a half-remembered past, a glorious time before the realities of the world caught up with you, where anything was possible and everything lay ahead of you.

This leaves Galore to feel nothing less than rapturous; it brims with wide-screen percussive surges and a tightly bound collection of catchy and luscious pop stomps, a euphoric and dizzying pop opus in its purest form that already feels destined to soundtrack a thousand festivals in 2014.(www.thumpers.co)

Author rating: 8/10