With their first release since their debut EP, Grandmas House have reaffirmed their punky, doom- rock drenched sound. Refusing to make any compromises, new track ‘Body’ fires the group straight back to the foreground of today’s indie landscape.
A thick and sludgy rhythm section sets the track’s gloomy mood in stone, creating the dark and captivating sound that we’ve come to expect from the Bristol-based trio. The opening line: “The darkness is taking me under/so I can’t see the sky” describes its effect perfectly.
The song’s ragged guitars and hypnotic drums slot somewhere between The Mysterines and Humbug-era Arctic Monkeys; sustaining an indelible swagger throughout the tune’s duration. While the ‘Body’’s sound radiates the impression that the band are as comfortable as they’ve ever been, the subject matter suggests the opposite.
Centring around concepts of struggling to feel comfortable in one’s body, the lyrics – barked out by vocalists Yasmin Berndt and Poppy Dodgson – express anger at the pressures of the modern world: “been wandering around on this world for a while/what you see is just a lie” is a line that both demonstrates the group’s powerhouse vocal, and reflects the gloomy nature of the song’s instrumental core.
The song embodies a punk attitude in its production too; running for approximately two-and-a-half minutes, the tune carries no spare weight. It’s tight, instrument-sparing production keeps things heavy and simple.
As has been the general feeling since Grandmas House first emerged, their refreshing and blistering take on the modern punk genre still seems bound to break into the national consciousness any minute.