Nottingham's SEACHANGE are clearly lining up to be of long-term interest where this reviewer is concerned. Their previous EP suggested they were from the undersung, but fascinating, awkward-to-pigeonhole brigade that has in the past presented us with criminally under-rated provincial weirdos such as Yeah Yeah Noh, The Room, Prolapse and Dawn Of The Replicants.
If you don't know about any of those bands, I suggest you get trawling on the net (it's worth it), but first go to Seachange's EP "News From Nowhere" because it's another fine piece of work. A vehicle for frontman Dan Eastop's grubbily attractive suburban vignettes, Seachange's five musicians work hard to present him with a propulsive, churning, slightly deserate backdrop for the opening title track. It sounds potentially like a fugitive story full of Dan's usual lyrical intrigue ("I met him where the road breaks up into the tracks into the wood") and the feeling of impending doom is swept along by Johanna Woodnutt's textural violin. It almost ruptures itself under the weight of its' own urgency, but in this case that's no bad thing.
As ever, the EP's two attendant tunes are worth the price of admission, too. "The Beach" is a song about the city when the lights have gone out and people keep secret trysts in dark caverns. It's a side of life that rarely shows itself and Dan's commentary here is truly touching, not least when the sings the heart-melting line: "There's a sadness in her eyes, but she lights up his life." Musically it's a little club-footed, but somehow that only adds to the tenderness therein.
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Final tune "Flycatcher", meanwhile, is the epitome of folk-flecked abject indie melancholy and that's meant as a compliment in this case. The band keep to a funereal tempo with Johanna's weeping violin and what sounds like an accordion aiding and abetting, while Dan sings the weird catchline "Wired to the moon, they found the flycatcher" like it's the saddest line the world's ever heard. A dirge then, but a bloody good one.
In a slightly dog-eared, scuffed kinda fashion, Seachange are quietly morphing into a force to be reckoned with. Like the long-lost bands I mentioned earlier their art deserves more widespread consideration, but unlike those bands they are still around to stake their claim. Let's hope they're in this for the long haul.
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