The Loud Bangs – Stray Honey (2023)
Referred to as the “Pink Floyd of shoegaze”, US-based foursome The Loud Bangs take you on a wild ride through their modern-day blend of fuzzy synthesisers, thick guitars and hazy soundscapes. Unafraid to delve into provocative topics, the group has touched on issues like mental health, sex, inner turmoil, hospitalisation and other gritty things people try to avoid. Featured on Plastic Magazine, Destroy//Exist, FV Music Blog, Good Music Radar, and York Calling, The Loud Bangs are sharing their cinematic flood of noise with the world. The latest addition to their discography is the EP, Stray Honey.
Vivacious and insatiable, The Loud Bangs have released seven five-track EPs since their inception in 2021. Following Salvation Memorial Hospital and Future Plaza, Stray Honey further explores the angst, despair and frustration felt when dealing with mental health challenges. In The Alive Experience, The Loud Bangs explored vocalist Alice Street’s focus on mental health problems and the threat of hospitalisation. Once again, the band uses instrumentation to “tilt towards themes of sex and sexual loneliness in a way past EPs avoided…”
What I find intriguing about The Loud Bangs is not the sublime arrangements evoking heart-stopping emotion. It is not the exciting toss of your mind with Marcus Nemuro’s drums, Daisy Guitierrez’s synths, Hannah Remley’s bass and Alice Street’s elegant vocals. While these are interesting elements of The Loud Bangs, it is how you need not hear any lyricism but still experience these mind-numbing feelings. As Street puts it, “who needs lyrics to convey emotion…we can’t understand the words of My Bloody Valentine or Cocteau Twins or Sigur Ros and we still get what they’re singing about…”
Opening with the track ‘Electroprize’, the group immediately throw you into a kaleidoscopic whirlpool of music tossing you from pillar to post. Grabbing your chest, they shake you in a frenzied twirl…but in a good way. Shoegaze meets post-punk in an unbelievably mad style, it is cinematic, anthemic and overwhelming. Interestingly enough, the step into ‘Sex Complex’ brings you down slowing the frantic pace into a more subdued sound.
The next track is ‘We All Want To Be All Right’ stepping into a softer, slower, more mellifluous trail of music. Not only does this dip into something soothing allow you to take a break from the craziness, but it elegantly touches on the desire for calm, hope and release in an uncertain world. Followed quickly by ‘This Is A Japanese Robot’, The Loud Bangs pull you out of that lull with passionate pop sounds – something very different from their previous off-kilter material. Finally, The Loud Bangs lead out on a soft, gentle, yet equally distorted melody in ‘Bell Gardens’.
Flying between Pink Floyd, The Cranberries, Garbage and Depeche Mode, The Loud Bangs reach out to the sounds of yesteryear with a nostalgic flair; however, retain modern-day shoegaze brashness adding edge to their music.
Soft but harsh. Simple but kaleidoscopic. Frantic but melodic. Distorted but smooth. Sophisticated but filled with raw energy. It appears The Loud Bangs can smash your head, grab your heart, toss you about and send shivers down your spine with haunting ease – all metaphorically, of course.
For more from The Loud Bangs, check out their official website, Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.
This artist was discovered via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
