Into The Diamond Sun

UK新世代ガールズ・グループとしてがぜん注目を集めるオーガニック・ポップ・フォーク・バンドStealing Sheepが、ついにデビュー・アルバムをリリース！UKリバプール出身の女のコ3人組サイケ・フォーク・バンド、Stealing Sheep。2010年夏にソング・ライティングを開始し、同年末には国内のクラブやカフェでツアーをスタート。キャッチーなメロディと彼女たち3人が奏でるハーモニーそしてヒプノティックに漂うギターは、うっとりするほど魅力的で、まるでスウィートでモダンなツイストを加えた、60年代サイケデリアのようだ。しかしそこにブレンドされたローファイなデジタル感覚やUSオルタナ・ロックの寂寞感が、他のガールズ・グループと一線を画する要素になっている。Emmy the Great、Summer Camp、Alessi's Ark、Tune-Yards、Beth Jeans Houghtonらと共に演奏してきた経験があり、ライヴの実績も十分にあることから、来日公演にも期待したいところ。

Moody psychedelic jamming, entrancing female voices (courtesy in this case of all three members), and a slow-burn tunefulness isn't a new approach by any means, so Stealing Sheep aren't busting down any doors, whether hearkening back to Mazzy Star or notable contemporaries like Warpaint. On a song like "Gold," its conclusion of guitar filigrees and a huge wash of slow fuzz is as blissed-out and celebratory, in a familiar sense, as one could wish. But Into the Diamond Sun shows the trio has its own ear for how to combine and recombine those elements, not least thanks to a balance of sprightly clarity and sudden shifting in the arrangements that feels more like a hip-hop mix transposed onto past approaches than just a jam. Consider the crisp percussion punches next to near silence at points on "The Garden," or how "Rearrange" shows friendly giddiness at points as much as random drones, while "Genevieve" is straight-up quick hooks one after another, however queasy and flanged the guitars and muffled the drums are (given the handclaps, though, that's all nicely counterbalanced). The rollicking drum punch and chant on "Shut Eye" feels much more like a hangover from 2000s indie than something older, but given the staccato arrangements, there's a refreshing spikiness at play. ~ Ned Raggett|