Hot on the heels of a track that has pretty much been the soundtrack to my autumn, The Bay, the wondrous Stereo Honey keep up the momentum with the release of another track from their forthcoming EP Monument. The track, Angel, is so good it had my missus calling out from the shower to check who it was.

Stereo Honey have only emerged during 2017 and they already feel like the polished real deal; it is difficult to think that Angel is only their fifth track listed on Spotify. Like its predecessors Angel has a spacey swirling vibe to it, and immediately feels like a classic track. To my mind there’s something of an accessible Radiohead feel to the music, along with a vocal from the band’s Peter Restrick that reminds me of Nothing But Thieves, Dry the River or going back a few decades, Jimmy Sommerville. There’s a great reserve and control to Angel; it must have been tempting to belt it out like a Muse song but it completely benefits from that understated matter of fact feel.

The track is an imagining of a incident involving the Angel of the North, that colossus Anthony Gormley statue on the outskirts of Newcastle; a broken hearted drunk driver sees the Angel as his love and drives off the road as she welcomes him into her arms. I’m a great fan of the Angel of the North and have wondered about her power while stood at her base and I can appreciate a connection to Homer’s Odyssey and the sirens luring weary travellers to a grisly end.

If you have a chance to catch Stereo Honey live it’s seriously worth the effort. I was recently pondering next Spring Bank Holiday Neighbourhood festival at Warrington and would have definitely tried to get tickets had I realised these guys were playing (huh too late now). However, I did recently catch this London based band playing at the Live at Leeds Ones to Watch 2018 gig with eight other acts at the Wardrobe. Stereo Honey immediately caught my attention with a clear lively vibe to their beats, and with an intelligent and gutsy feel. The other band members producing this strong lush sound are Ben Edwards (bass), Nicky Boiardi (Guitars and Keys) and Jake Black (drums). Given Stereo Honey are named after a song by shoe-gazing indie band The Daysleepers (from the 2006 Soft Attack EP) it is perhaps not surprising that live the band’s vocals are less “front of house” and the vocals feel more of a part of the overall sound rather than its lead.

The lyrics of Stereo Honey’s last song The Bay reflect the horrific drowning of 23 exploited Chinese migrant cockle collectors in the Morecombe Bay area in 2004 so I was keen to discover the themes of the final two songs on the Monument EP. While Stereo Honey were happy to tell me the titles of the remaining tracks (Feels Like Heaven and Through The Dark), their themes will remain a mystery for a few more days (the full EP is released on 1 December on Beatnik Creative).

Given that Stereo Honey have only emerged during 2017 it’s clear they are making a big impact already, and are no doubt being pencilled in for many a “band to watch” listing for 2018. There are some big guns helping the band along the way with a successful and established management and production team already in place. I’m not going to be alone in predicting bright shiny things for Stereo Honey and I can’t wait to see what 2018 brings for this striking new band.

For fans of Wild Beasts, Radiohead, Nothing But Thieves…

Listen to Angel here:

Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/track/3e2gZbZvyvwqVLnmywzGiw

Chris R