NETIL

In the late eighties, when the first crop of UK indie bands started focusing on their shoes far more than their supporters, few could have realised the impact. A joke genre coined by Melody Maker to describe the bands for which audience interaction was anathema, shoegaze has gone on to dominate the global alt-rock scene. From its roots in The Jesus & Mary Chain‘s tinnitus-inducing fuzz, via Ride, Tamaryn and beyond, it’s a style that never fades in popularity.

The latest outfit to embrace this overdriven indie blueprint is Netil. Online info is sparse, but the band herald from London and are probably part of the music community that’s grown up around Netil House, an artists’ space / bar / studio / market in Hackney. Other than that, your guess is as good as mine. Clearly fans of the anti-marketing shtick that’s become fashionable among underground bands, they let their music do the talking; and it does it pretty well.

Recent track “Is There Something In Your Eye” is a wigged-out blast of brooding, bass-heavy psych-fuzz with indecipherable lyrics that are a distant afterthought to the bruising production. The kind of band you’d expect to find handing out earplugs at their gigs, My Bloody Valentine-style, Netil delivers an incandescent re-imagining of the darkest shoegaze moments. Loud, heavy and explosively psychedelic; one listen to them and you’ll be stung.

Words by Toby Rogers

Tipped by Rob Platts