TOTT #2: PEACE

With the clarion call to arms of “music to roll and smoke, music to fuck you in the heart,” Birmingham newcomers PEACE aren’t the hippy-dippy stoners their name suggests. More hate and war than hashish and love beads, the four-piece aren’t averse to the odd bout of fisticuffs with wayward fans.

Long-listed for the BBC’s Sound Of 2013, for PEACE the accolade’s deserved. They’re a band with stadium-sized ambitions; but one far removed from the glut of laddish Kasabian knock-offs clogging up my inbox. Pitching themselves between Primal Scream, Led Zeppelin and The Cure, PEACE are lighting the touchpaper on a revolution.

Formed little more than a year or so ago, PEACE were bubbling under the West Midlands indie radar until the homemade video for ‘Bblood‘ went viral. Made simply to share the song with their mates, it caught the ears of a music press hungry for the next great British guitar band. It scored them a New Band Of The Day article on The Guardian‘s website and saw them described as “a cross between Wu Lyf and Foals”; a tag that’s fits perfectly.

Now signed to Columbia, the band’s latest release, EP Delicious, is a startling blend of danceable indie-rock that’s firm evidence of why they’re so hotly tipped. Influenced in equal measure by acid house and Echo and the Bunnynem, PEACE deliver a dark, citrus shake that’s laden with explosive innovation.

Words by Toby Rogers

Originally posted at Generator on December 20th