Skep Wax Records The Cords [VINYL]

Comprising of sisters Eva and Grace Tedeschi, they started playing drums when they were little kids. They found that they liked 80s and 90s indie music more than their peers did, and so formed a band, just the two of them, with Grace on drums and Eva on guitar – and the songs started to flow. With only a cassette and a flexi single released so far (both of which sold out in a matter of hours), Eva and Grace honed their skills by playing a whole series of gigs with some of the biggest names in Scottish pop. Their first show was with The Vaselines, and since then they have played with Camera Obscura, Belle and Sebastian, BMX Bandits and others, while also sharing stages with the new generation of indiepop stars: the Umbrellas, Chime School, Lightheaded. They are embraced by established stars and adored by their contemporaries. The Cords were invited to record a session for Riley and Coe on 6 Music on the back of their early releases and have now recorded their eagerly-awaited debut album, which will be co-released by Skep Wax (in the UK and Europe) and Slumberland Records (in America). Like all great pop bands, The Cords have taken familiar ingredients and created something utterly fresh. Older indie fans will hear echoes of The Shop Assistants, The Primitives, Tiger Trap and Talulah Gosh, but they will hear something else too: a yearning, dreamy melodic power that takes the songs into darker, stranger places. Younger pop fans won’t care about these old reference points: what they will hear is the sound of two young women doing something utterly exciting: playing loud guitar and loud drums, taking analogue instruments and hitting them hard in the service of immediate and infectious pop tunes, and not giving a second thought about the digital world that wants to own everything we do. The Cords sound free: they remind us that pop music, played right, is expressive, liberating, joyful and deeply personal. First single ‘Fabulist’ is a sweet and catchy pop song that races along, so headlong and hooky that, on first listen, you could miss the fact that it’s a wholehearted take-down of people who lie for a living. And the album is a rollercoaster from that point onwards. ‘Just Don’t Know (How To Be You)’ turns the jangle-meter up, quickly giving way to ‘October’, which pushes it higher still. A lot of the songs are short and sweet, but the album is full of surprises. ‘Yes It’s True’ comes in with real swagger, then softens you up with Lush-like vocal harmonies. Closing track ‘When You Said Goodbye’ is a dreamy tearjerker. The album was produced by Jonny Scott and Simon Liddel, and it respects the band’s stripped down DIY approach. There is some bass guitar (played by Eva and Grace) and occasionally a keyboard pokes its head above the surface. But these elements are simply doing their job: the real stars of this record are Eva’s sinuous guitar and silky vocals, and Grace’s clattering, expressive sing-song drums. It’s the sound of two sisters having an intense musical conversation with each other, pushing each other on to greater heights, exhilarated by the set of perfect pop songs they have magicked up.