Sonic Hearts Foundation – Into Forever

Single Review by Ilya Kuryakin | 14 Jun 2013
Single title: Into Forever
Artist: Sonic Hearts Foundation
Label: Self-released
Release date: 10 Jun

Glasgow's Sonic Hearts Foundation claim to have three album's worth of material under their collective belt, and it shows – from the opening electronic pulses of the EP's final and most impressive track, 1984, there is a brash confidence on show that belies the band's collective youth.

As the peak of their four-track debut, 1984 is a thrilling proposition – the audible rock and roll sneer of Anthony Henderson adding weight to the tightly-controlled drums, insisitent post-punk bass, reverb-heavy guitar lines and throbbing synths. The effect achieved is not dissimilar to France's Team Ghost, although the emphasis on fuzzed-out shoegaze dynamics is shifted slightly towards more conventional indie and pop. There are hints of Crocodiles-era Echo & The Bunnymen's epic, bipolar swagger, and the rhythm section's pedal-assisted momentum can't help but recall Killing Joke. 

But for such a young band, these influences are distant, received second hand (if consciously absorbed at all). The band's stated heroes include Wild Beasts and The Horrors; two bands who have managed to draw on rich traditions of rock, indie and post-punk, and reconfigure them into a slick, more commercially viable package, without sacrificing their integrity, and while wearing these influences on their sleeeves.

Sonic Hearts Foundation seem likely to be able to continue pulling off a similar trick – Azrael explores terrain familiar to Scots indie titans Frightened Rabbit, but the echoing reverb of the guitar lines give the track a more lived-in, timeless feel. Perhaps the most useful contemporary Glasgow band to compare them to would be Holy Esque, with whom they share a proto-Gothic sense of scale, a mesmerising vocalist, intricate guitar and drums, and a detached cool.

80s indie and shoegaze are also useful reference points – on Northern Lights, strong shoegaze and dream-pop flourishes broaden the scope of their sound, with echoes of Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine given an infectious indie polish. USA meanwhile, underscored with growling, Carpenter-esque synth and a muted, wailing siren, is a snarling hurricane of sloganeering vocals and soaring, ethereal guitar. Taken as a whole, Into Forever is an utterly convincing first salvo – as higher production values and bigger stages beckon, Sonic Hearts Foundation are a band to watch closely.

http://sonicheartsfoundation.bandcamp.com