News Wampire

: Wampire
Based: Portland, Oregon
Listen: Soundcloud.com/wampire-music
Similar to: Ariel Pink

Portland duo Wampire are blissfully unconcerned with prevailing musical trends or any sense of futuristic sonic invention. The duo of Rocky Tinder and Eric Phibbs have a refreshingly tongue in cheek attitude that gives their music a brilliantly bonkers effect. This much is clearly evident on their excellent debut single for Polyvinyl Records.

‘The Hearse’ is a careering piece of retro tinged garage pop. It’s insanely addictive. Built around a driving rhythm and a dominating organ sound it’s a single that immediately serves notice of their potential. There’s a slight hint of The Horrors’ earliest material in the conflation of sound between that organ and the doomy death charge of the song’s propulsive rush to the finish. Dark and uplifting all at once.

The songs collected on the duo’s Soundcloud page suggest forthcoming album ‘Curiosity’, produced by Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Jake Portrait, will see them experimenting with an intriguing kind of garage tinged lo-fi synth pop perhaps best exemplified by their brilliantly ramshackle cover of Kraftwerk’s ‘Das Modell’. With Wampire, ever the intriguers, you don’t particularly know what direction they’ll go in or even if they’re taking the whole experience entirely seriously. But you can rest assured that the results will be spectacular.