Still Corners
Remember Pepper?

LA RECENSIONE

Preliminary notice. This review is a gamble. Then the fact that the review in question deals with an EP two years old further complicates things. Yeah. Because the desire to spend a few lines on this London quintet arises first and foremost as a focus on realities that remain marginal on an international level, either due to their scarce production or that still insufficient circuit of hype that should grow from the bottom. Yet the Still Corners, a formation shrouded in a halo of mystery (incredible as it sounds, the real names behind this project remain unknown) has received some attention in their home country, enough to be compared to giants like Broadcast and Beach House.

Their background is one of the most original. Their references range from 60's girly-pop to the psychedelic pop of French freaks, from Italian '70s horror movie soundtracks to modern indie pop. Some critics, in trying to draw a possible comparison, have mentioned the ghost of a Rachel Goswell, the historic voice of Slowdive, and that of Joe Meek, the British avant-garde composer. Certainly with the necessary caution. Bearing in mind the fact that this is a group with only one EP and two singles, the last of which is dated 2010. Thus, we are awaiting proof that will tell us what their real potential is.

From their "Remember Pepper" is a superb collection of six tracks, all immersed in an ambiguous and crepuscular aura. "History of Love", supported by drum echoes and soft arpeggios over which a glacial and fairylike voice hovers, closely resembles Jesus and Mary Chain and the more recent Beach House. "Parallels", built around the harmonic loop of a sixties-style organ, roams around the spectral lands of Broadcast's "Noise Made by the People". "Fall Sparrows," a minimalist one-minute fragment, is meteoric dust that happened to fall in Hyde Park. "Cremona" is in its own way a tribute to Italian horror; Cremona seen as an oasis of the Unknown that whistles ethereal and dreamy. It is followed by "Clockwork" with its prog-rock sound swirls and certain resonances that bring to mind the Chandeen of "Teenage Poetry." The EP closes in the best possible way with "French Kiss", perhaps the best track, a skillful blend of psych-pop and dream-gaze ingredients, dominated by a "goblinesque" frame against the background of a precious rhythmic section.

If this review could have a title, it would be the most obvious: Great Expectations.

Still Corners "Remember Pepper" (EP, self-produced 2008)