Continuing the Midlands’ run of success, new indie band Lusts. a duo, according to the information we’ve been given. It has been said they also operate as a trio, by which they possibly mean live, although they’re so new they’ve only played one gig to date: their show at Dalston’s Birthdays on 27th January will be their second-ever, after which they go on tour as support to Coves in March.
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Anyway, the point is, they sound like a classic four-piece, unless they’re sharing vocal, guitar, bass and drum duties between the two (or three) of them. They’re very classic/classicist: their music reeks of shimmery reverb-drenched indie from the early-‘90s (shoegaze) and dark, goth-y majestic rock from the early-‘80s (Echo & The Bunnymen). Then there’s the chugging, hypnotic rhythms (krautrock) and sense of swirly abandon (psychedelia). The four tracks we’ve heard by them are very much in the rock tradition, But then, it’s all in the ear of the beholder, their debut single “Temptation” and discerned all sorts of influences that hadn’t remotely occurred, such as New Order,or even Spandau Ballet.
They’re signed to the newly reactivated 1965 Records, the label that brought us The View and, frankly, no one else that made much of a mark unless you count Toddla T. But that was then and now, with indie per se is so thin on the ground, there might be more of an appetite for this kind of thing. And Lusts do do it rather well. “Temptation” hurtles along like the Bunnymen’s Rescue being chased by The House Of Love, but there’s something about the chord changes, which follow an obvious pattern, and the declamatory vocal, that suggest an attempt is being made here to echo not just Echo but Oasis and that kind of mass-appeal indie. Cross is an instrumental awash with effects and propelled by organ. Waves opens with churchy keyboards and revisits the motorik chug of Temptation. Sometimes is also very Echo. Still, there’s little arguing with the music, which is urgent and commanding. “Listen,” it seems to say. “It’s heaven up here.”
The Fat Angel Sings 