Neu Gambles

: Gambles
Based: New York
Listen: Soundcloud.com/whoisgambles
Similar to: Kurt Vile, Eddi Front

The music of Matthew Siskin is actually quite terrifying. To get in the headspace of someone singing songs as frank and torn apart as Gambles’ takes some nerve. You’re up close, virtually by his side, when debut track ‘Trust’ rings out. Siskin has a lot to get off his chest. It’s anyone’s guess as to the words that’ll next emerge from his smoke-tinged voice.

The guy quotes Charles Bukowski, looks up to Leonard Cohen, and the eventual product of what we can only presume to be years of torment spills out into his own songs. It all boils down to the voice. Although the lyrics suggest someone who’s run down and exhausted, half repenting, half bitter and sore, the voice is strong and true. It lurches over the stark guitar strums like someone commanding the scene. Sure, Siskin’s music is heartfelt, to an almost overbearing extent. But the voice is powerful, a lease of life surrounding the misery.