DEMOS

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WORDS: KATE MURPHY

DEMO OF THE MONTH

Heaven Below – My Own God

When the rolling guitar and delicious harmonies come in on Heaven Below’s track, you find yourself moving in the same way you did to My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless. My Own God scorches and melts in tones of red and purple inside your brain, and you drift off somewhere that might get you thinking of The Stone Roses too, before it all kicks off in its final moments. The scuzzy-smooth texture of Heaven Below’s offering curls around you like thick smoke, and the way the vocals rise and sphere out on themselves – in what surely must be described as ‘sexy hope’ - leaves you wanting to drip-feed from it. Stirring, calming, gorgeous. www.facebook.com/weareheavenbelow

Dan Ward – Summer Sun

With a still-drunk swagger, and the sweaty headiness of someone trying to find and lose themselves at the same time, this offering from Dan Ward crashes its way down sun-baked alleys like echoes of the night before. “Ask me why and I can’t say / All the signs guide me that way”, Ward sings, like he could be shouting it out to the Grand Canyon or defending himself to a bouncer. Over its two minutes and eighteen seconds, Summer Sun embodies the on-top-of-the-world abandon of your twenties: a widescreen yearning for freedom, and the dizzying bewilderment that comes with getting it. It’s indie fuzz, at its self-assertive, self-conscious, youthcelebrating best. www.soundcloud.com/danward

Bloomsfield – What Have I Done Now?

Of the two indie songs in this month’s demos, I’d say What Have I Done Now? has less of an immediate impact, but it is not without its passion, nor without its story. The narrator’s dysfunctional relationship is painted for us straight away: “Hate the way you put me down / When I already have my head in the ground”, he sings, his voice raspy, as if from arguing so much. He’s a man who has just about managed to prise his fingers away from what is left of the relationship, but is fighting against his own grip. It all works its way up to an excellent guitar solo, and if the song had this same attitude from the very beginning, it would catapult it to a new level. www.soundcloud.com/bloomsfield

Yes Chef – Two Mile Lunacy

Once it’s teased you with its beginning, this gets moving like a strange, chubby reptile, shoulders rolling, dragging its stomach as it goes. The bass is irresistible, and the song takes us somewhere tropical and swampy, where the rest of these creatures live. At some points, it’s elevator music, if elevator music was done really well, and was off its head. At other points, upon the entry of a jangly guitar, it’s as if the elevator doors have opened into the coolest hotel you can imagine – everything is made of gold, the guitar suggests – and welcomes a chorus of female voices that feel like they are caressing your face. It then fades out without explanation. I think you’ll like it. www.soundcloud.com/yeschefsir

Torn Apart By Lisa – Be Yourself (Unless You Can Be Bob Dylan)

There are a few things you look for in a folk singer. One of them is vulnerability, usually revealed when they sing about hurt, and it often comes with accepting that this hurt is part of life – it runs as naturally as a hillside stream through every soul’s existence. It’s for this reason you won’t hear of a folk outfit called Can’t Complain or Going Quite Well, Actually, Considering. Vulnerability is exactly what comes through in this endearing demo from Torn Apart By Lisa, but not in your typical way. With an opening line about Tim Henman, and a loving impersonation of Bob Dylan towards the song’s end, James Berry brings a sense of humour and an everyman likeability to the genre, and reminds us not to forget the wide-eyed fan who lives inside us all. www.facebook.com/tornapartbylisa