ATOM TREE

Glasgow gives us some Goosebumps with night-time neon anthem Hearts. It’s from three piece Atom Tree who make music best enjoyed in the darkness.

It would be very easy to take the band’s geographical location and their love of electronica and throw on a comparison to Chvrches but that would be ignoring their exciting experimental side. Atom Tree currently have plenty of understated numbers on their soundcloud, bursting at the seams with soundscapes built on Shaun Canning’s pianos and synths, powering percussion from Michael Robertson and haunting deep vocals from Julie Knox. If Jessie Ware fronted Purity Ring, this is what it would sound like.

Hearts uses gorgeous samples in the chorus, surrounding splashes of echo on Julie’s voice, which is only a heartbeat away. It has flickers of M83’s Midnight City, in that these samples mixed with this voice would be perfect for cruising along a motorway in the early hours of the day. The absolute highlight of the track is the piano solo which uses arpeggios like a slick moonlight version of Daft Punk’s Aerodynamic.

Atom Tree have already supported Glass Animals and SOHN, masters of experimental electronic music in 2014, and it would be foolish to not be excited for what next year holds for this band. One thing they do have in common with Chvrches is that they’ll be making national waves of chatter soon enough.

Words by Scott Hastie

Tip by Mary Chang