News Meke Menete

During childhood, it feels as though there are only two obstacles to being in a successful band – choosing which of your friends will join you and picking the name that you’ll call yourself. Mostly, the worries about not having the talent to play any instrument, being bereft of a practice space and being only 12 years old seem distant, but most of the acts of pre-pubescence still managed to fall short on that second point: the name.
Meke Menete seem to have suffered from a similar joylessness in search of a title, despite having all the requisite skills needed to be an actual, functioning band. Having wowed crowds in the Manchester area under the moniker Youth, they later put their efforts until the title Books, but were similarly jaded, fighting on under Youth/Books for a short while before opting for their current banner.

The music they produce, however, is somewhat more decisive. Premiered in a similar manner to the now ubiquitous WU LYF, the band supplies a video to accompany their atmospheric, spacious recordings. The one that pops up as their bleak, understated MySpace page loads is perhaps the finest of the scant few available. Entitled ‘Money’, it’s a track that deals in slowly piling on the vibes with moody guitar work; it builds towards a crescendo that doesn’t quite release the innate tension before petering out in a similar manner, unfulfilled but still effortlessly powerful. Combined with the cut-up montage of images that border on the profound, it’s an aesthetic that we’ve seen before, but this is a less painstaking, more understated body of work that feeds as much on was is left out as what is included.

The mystery element of their Heavy Pop peers is there, too, whether intentional or not. As of yet, it’s difficult to tell whether the band have got any gigs planned for the coming year – the interest from promoters must surely be there, and A&R agents can’t be far behind given the demand for this kind of woozy, distant, industrial take on indie at the moment. Actually, this kind of stuff would be pretty exciting in any era.