London-based trio Novella emerged partway through last year tugging and chewing on the coattails of the likes of Echo Lake and The History Of Apple Pie, despite July-released single The Things You Do / Oh Brian bettering anything committed to black wax by either of the aforementioned. Melissa Rigby featured behind the sticks and skins as part of a drummer carousel, yet still their unhinged underground aesthetic all too oft went unheard. Quite conceivably Santiago, the trio's latest of three tracks to rain down from the Soundcloud may, we pray, change these winds considerably: spectral vocal breeze redolent of that blown by Fear Of Men's Jess Weiss and by no means lazy-boned guitars are pulverised and pulped by vicious drum battery, before distorted crunch evocative of early Sleater-Kinney rips through superlative popular song like facetious jet-skier ripping tranquil green sea to shreds. It's an accomplished and heartening advance from that what was previously immortalised in MP3, and harks back almost obsequiously to Best Coast's early EPs of 2009 and beyond. Santiago by Novella.
