Jaguwar began life as a trio, formed in Berlin, Germany by Oyèmi and Lemmy in 2012. Their drummer Chris signed up in 2014 to complete the current line-up; to date, they have released two EPs and have taken their wall of sound (heavily “shoegaze” influence – think My Bloody Valentine, Lush and Curve influenced noise pop) on to countless shows in the U.K., Denmark, France, Serbia, Germany and beyond.
This first full-length album, Ringthing is a shimmering, energetic reverberating, crashing monolith of an album. Jaguwar sway from combining sweet pop figures with white-hot amphetamine noise to sounding like a serendipitous encounter between Husker Du and Ride. “Noise & detail” is how the band describes their soun, which would not be wholly inaccurate.
Starting with the frenetic “Lunatics”, it’s an enjoyable sensory assault; you want, need and like gripping onto the bar of this musical roller coaster as it takes you up and down with no restraint; “Skeleton Feet” is another pulsing track that opens with an exquisite sound of guitar scrapes that can be likened to a melodic pane of glass breaking and falling in tune; “Slow And Tiny” uses a cacophonous soundscape in the background of an otherwise breakneck tempo that reminds one of running through a nightmare – haunting yet completely enticing. “Crystal”, has that certain ’80’s swirling feel – a cross between The Cure and Siouxsie & The Banshees – one of those great, cinematic musical ice sculptures that shimmers; “Away” is straight out of the Chameleons/early U2/Comsat Angels/Sound school of structure and production – echogated guitar, space and heavily propulsive rhythm section and the aptly-titled “End” is a soundscape instrumental that oddly enough sounds a great deal like Husker Du’s “The Tooth Fairy & The Princess” – a slab of modern psychedelic to end this spectacular album in a very satisfying fashion.
What can I say more than you really need to seek this album out and listen to it, from beginning to end. A dynamic debut album that gives me more hope than I’d previously had – that young bands are taking their cues from one of the richest musical periods and putting their own stamp on it. Well done… well done, indeed.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Ringthing is currently available
http://www.tapeterecords.de/artists/jaguwar/