Breathe Out - Breathe Out

Breathe Out’s eponymous debut EP charges and swerves like a raging bull with a schizoid personality, both angry and content at being labelled a grunge revivalist. At one juncture the London four-piece are melancholic; at another, primal and frenzied.

Opener ‘Green Milk’ raucously epitomises the sheer might they are capable of exuding. We hear them partying down as if in a Seattle club, circa 1990. Swathes of distortion, layers of feedback and squalling Mascis riffs thunder in our ears. Pensive verse lyrics morph into a united chorus of shouts and twangs. We’re left in a shaken state after its maniacal disintegration.

‘Ride The Waves’, a shoegazey number, relieves us somewhat. It’s driven by a heavy, straightforward beat and is centred around incessantly didactic utterances: ‘Ride the waves / don’t complain’, they repeat. But it also encompasses lighter touches: acoustic and reverb-stricken guitars are added to the pan, as are cooing choruses and the jokey addition of an ‘ahhhlright’. The end result is a tune that sounds like Ride covering the Lemonheads – a beguiling and fantastic outcome, you’ll have to agree.

After ‘Feathers’, a mid-EP filler which is whiny, decidedly average and not half as exciting as the first two tracks, the EP develops and smoothens. In come the drum machines and samples. Penultimate tune ‘1,000,000 Times Before’ once more induces gloom. Harmonies are rife, and the peculiar backdrop of drum effects and synth waves works surprisingly well. This paves the way for the ethereal finale of ‘Elite / Corrigans’ to reel us in, sooth us and fade out.

So, apart from the blatant blip in the middle, Breathe Out have shown a lot of promise with this almost entirely coherent debut. But grunge revivalists are coming thick and fast these days. Have these guys made a record which will set them apart from the rest? Are they as powerful and ferocious as Sonic Youth and Royal Trux were in their heyday? Well, yes, in places. They’ve certainly made a good stab.