Moreish Idols - Lock Eyes and Collide

Format: 12" Vinyl
Catalogue No.: SWP011V
Barcode: 5400863102555
Release Date: 28 Apr 2023
Genre: Indie/Alternative

 Coherence is overrated. Especially if keeping things hazy, and not smoothing away all the rough edges, and allowing all the seeming contradictions to find their own unique harmony with each other in their own time can result in the heady magic of ‘Lock Eyes and Collide’, the second EP from South London-based quintet Moreish Idols.
 Across these four tracks, Moreish Idols deal in tangles of hyper-melodic guitar, sleepy-eyed murmurs glowing with unassuming poetry, blossoms of wise saxophone, rhythms that pulse and purr to their own inarguable logic. You could spend days trying to define what exactly it is they are doing over these fifteen or so minutes, but you’d be wiser to just lose yourself within ‘Lock Eyes and Collide’’s laser-guided twists and turns.
 The band passed tracks from initial collaborative songwriting sessions along to Dan Carey, who signed Moreish Idols to his Speedy Wunderground label and produced their first release on the label, the ‘Float’ EP, in the summer of 2022 (they’d released a pair of self-released 7”s before lockdown). Restless, jerky, jagged and rhythmically centred, many of Float’s energetic pleasures bore the influence of their earlier flirtation of post-punk, but the ruminative ‘When The River Runs Dry’ spelled deeper treasures lay within, while the erratic, wonderful ‘Speedboat’ spoke to Moreish Idols’ essential gift for mystery. ‘Lock Eyes and Collide’ is something else altogether, though - a looser constellation of ideas, a clearer hint of the group’s future.
 The elements that compose the EP - swooning tremolo guitars, prickly melodic riddles, erudite saxophone improvs, loose and flexible rhythms - make perfect sense together, on vinyl if not on paper, sounding like ‘Watery, Domestic’-era Pavement one second and some bucolic Canterbury Scene prog the next, but
always, always like Moreish Idols most of all.
 The future that is undefined is limitless. If ‘Lock Eyes and Collide’ captures Moreish Idols’ present, what do they see in their future? “If we’d just made ‘Float II’ for our second EP, people would be, ‘Oh, they’re the band that does that’,” says Tom. “I’m so glad we’ve made this weird alter ego of our first EP; now we feel we can do whatever we want.”

Tracklisting
Nocturnal Creatures
Between These Ears
Green Light
Chum