Last summer a lot of us blogs got excited by Guildford / Cambridge duo Nick Benton and Lucy Wilson's Carousels, three debut recordings emerged highlighting stomping, buzzing chain-saw guitar riffs, layers of feedback and gorgeous, hazy vocal harmonies, the exhilarating fizz of "Sleep" especially getting us shoegaze lovers a bit hot under the collar.
The band though were not as content as the armchair critics, for despite glowing praise in columns such as NME Radar and The Recommender after a less than a handful of live shows as a duo Carousels decided to disappear behind the scenes and re-write themselves as a 'real' band, where laptop and looping pedals had previously made distortion and beats, three news members (Danny, Danny and Angela) joined the ranks to make up a new and improved Carousels, slowly returning earlier this year with a handful of shows played under an alternative name (the first at one of my Beautiful Strange nights), the band are now ready to launch themselves once more into the spotlight with their new demo "Stay With Me" and return to the live arena under the Carousels banners (on Thursday with Savages and O Children at Hoxton Bar & Kitchen - unmissable - details).
"Stay With Me" does not disappoint and certainly does not fuck around, instantly penetrating your brain with a huge wall of sound from swathes of droning, spiralling guitars and a punishing drum beat, which fully intoxicates when interwoven with Nick and Lucy's dual, melodic vocals "Stay With Me" retains the energy and blistering pace of Carousels earlier demos, commands to be played loudly and seen live, do so on Thursday, you won't regret it.
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