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Single Review: Bear Driver – Wolves/Long Lost Giants

Bear Driver are a sextet hailing from London come Leeds, who claim to cook up a riveting folk psychedelic recipe. Sounds like my kinda thing. I’m excited.

So let’s listen to the A side. ‘Wolves’ is a sunshine slice of sound (alliteration attack) bubbling over with golden indie riffs which are backed by unrelenting fizzy pop drums. The question-answer vocals amid the verse – “There are wolves in the underground calling!” “SAY WHAT!?” – add an injection of youth while the floaty harmonies provide a backing of forest-like majesty, complimenting the animalistic title. Hey, while this track is not exactly living up to what I was hoping for in terms of Animal Collective insanity, it’s still super, Operation Please-ish fun.

B-Side (yay – bring back the B-Side!) ‘Long Lost Giants’ finally confirms the fact this band do, after all, deserve to be bestowed the genre of ‘psychedelic’. This number sees the trackings sound intriguingly out of sync, but this only adds to the brilliance of this surrealistic hit. It’s a dawning of swimming and swirling sounds provided by lush harmonies, folky ukuleles and even some Revolver Beatle-esque reversal. I actually prefer the B side to the contrastingly commercial, radio-darn catchy-ready A side that is ‘Wolves’.

So, an interesting double-sided single we have here, which I have ultimately, come out very impressed with. The A side is an energetic indie number which would please Bombay Bicyclers across the country, while the B side will satisy the rest of you psych-seekers.

Enjoy another Bear Driver track below:

MP3: Bear Driver – A Thousand Samurais
[audio:http://theregoesthefear.com/media/201005/AThousandSamurais.mp3]