To listen to those brash opening chords of the new Vehicle single is to immediately inherit an unwavering confidence: brimming with purpose, mental freshness, excellent posture and a cherry-picked second hand wardrobe that looks far more expensive than it really costs.
Recalling the upcycled vintage-jangle of Kai Slater’s Sharp Pins – Vehicle open for him in Manchester in August, as it happens – the new single from Leeds’ self-professed ‘hellpop beat combo’ is a heady, moreish, and a delicious surge of treble-maxxed guitars, melodic-as-fuck hooks and surrealistic ramble. Resembling ‘Wings’ by The Fall, but if it had been deep-cleaned, waxed and drenched in sunshine, ‘Escalators’ rolls out a punchy, relentless drive, with vocalist Michel Cable divining “dark museums behind years of missed calls” “staircases full of people” and “waiting rooms in space” to the delights of garage fuzz and 12-string guitar chime.
Firmly part of the flourishing DIY scene in Leeds that, even within its impressively massed ranks, contains a pocket of bands trading in the post-punk for power pop – pushbike, cyclist and labelmates elwell among them – Vehicle’s flair for rejuvenating classic guitar-pop is making itself heard.
Photo by Dan Commons
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