Peakes mix minimal ambience and emotive tenderness on ‘Still Life’

Every weekday, DIY’s new music know-it-all Neu brings you one essential new release to get obsessed with. Today’s Neu Pick comes from Peakes.

Back in June, before the heatwave came to kill us all and then left, and we moaned some more, DIY put on a rather excellent event to launch our special Do It Yourself issue. As part of it, supporting headliners Gengahr, we got new Leeds trio Peakes along to serve up a stripped-down set of their hypnotic, minimal electronic pop. Why? Because, even then, we knew the Northerners had something rather enticing going on.

Now they’re back with new track ‘Still Life’ and oh, it does feel nice when we prove ourselves right.

Led by singer Molly Puckering’s crystalline vocal, her effortlessly pure strains cut through the spacious, nocturnal beats and subtle, classy production that undulates beneath her. It’s all very tasteful, but emotive and human at the same time - a tricky manoeuvre.

Of the track, Molly states: “It’s about the moments when you become so introverted you exist in your own universe. When you isolate yourself from the rest of the world and become dependent on your own company.”

Listen to ‘Still Life’ below.