(The Verge) – It’s my personal belief that good music comes from Great Britain, and I’m loving the indie bands from that area right now. Foals, The 1975 and Passenger are all awesome indie bands climbing up the Top 100 in the UK (check out that international Top 100 feature on Spotify. It’s pretty nifty), but Racing Glaciers might also be climbing with them soon.
The band’s free, self-titled EP is available now on bandcamp. The six track album features Tim Monaghan (vocals, drums, guitar, keyboards), Danny Thorpe (guitar, bass, percussion, backing vocals), Matt Scheepers (trumpet, bass, guitar, microkorg, backing vocals), and Simon Millest (guitar). The four recorded the album over five days last summer while they were all in college. After finishing this last semester, they all planned to take a year off of school to tour and record more.
It’s easy to see why they would put school on hold to focus on their music. The album starts with an intro which, honestly, I could take or leave. The nice part about it is that it leads into “South,” and the song immediately gets going because the intro did the majority of the building up.
Instrumentally, “South” is a really cool song. It keeps on building up and getting bigger. You start slow and simple and it gets progressively more complicated. Soon the trumpets come in and the drums get louder and it all comes to a head just to end with the same simple sounds from the beginning.
“Summit,” the next track, starts off more upbeat but also builds in a similar fashion. Again, instrumentally, it’s so ‘rad.’ I really love the guitar, and the way they are utilizing the cymbals on all their songs is fantastic. They use a microkorg, which Google tells me is a complicated synthesizer, which adds a really cool element.
Lyrically, though, Racing Glaciers could use some work. In “Summit” Monaghan sings, “Oh my my there’s a strange wind calling/I get a feeling but I don’t know why/This time my name is called.” Just…what? I’m lost (and I’m an English major.). On their bandcamp page, their bio states, “Racing Glaciers are a 4 piece band based in Macclesfield, we seem to write music mostly about rivers and the nighttime.” I guess I’m just not one for lyrics of that sort…
“Talking About Space” is, lyrically, a song that I understand, and really like. Monaghan sings, “Would you break down if you’re on your own?/Falling apart like a nice night, honey/Holding your own with no real reason.” It’s about vulnerability and the effort it takes to get to where you’re comfortable with another person. As such, it makes sense for the song to be much softer and not build up like the other ones. I really like the soft trumpet on this track (in fact, Scheepers always kills it with his trumpet.).
Then we have “Morning.” If these boys want to make a music video, this would be the track to do it with. Maybe it’s because I’m desperate for a vacation away from home, but I love it. The lyrics “I want to get out/I want to get away/I don’t know, I don’t know how to leave this place” just really work for me. Instrumentally, it’s a little more mainstream. You don’t hear trumpets, but the guitar riffs are catchy and the microkorg adds a cool element once again.
The album finishes off with “Little River.” Again, we have a song that’s instrumentally cool, lyrically slightly confusing (though not nearly as much as the first tracks of the EP). I still like it, though. It’s fun to listen to.
The whole album is definitely really pleasant…Can I use the term ear candy? I just really love their sound. Between Monaghan’s voice and the way all of their instrumental parts mesh, it just works. It’s a relaxing album, good for your drive to the beach this summer.
Like the other Free Music Friday bands, Racing Glaciers has their EP up on bandcamp under the “Name Your Price” option. The band’s page says, “Feel free to fill your boots for nothing but if you’re that way inclined, any donations would be welcome.”
Get their album on bandcamp, and follow them on Twitter and Facebook for details on their upcoming EP.
