wych elm conjure narratives to draw the deepest anxieties from your very core, exposing you to garish light and saturating the surrounding space with tales of grotesque and gruesome notions. Yet its how pertinent they sound while doing it that is scariest of all, embodying the disquiet that lurks in the everyday and permeates within their music.
Guitars warble with a perturbed sense of deliberation as Caitlin Elliman wonders from a disaffected drawl into a sharpened spit, perforating the space with biting reflections; “where’s the nearest church, I’ve got dirt on you”. It’s their unanticipated turns in mood that strike hardest, the band in tandem as they split strings and wring throats with scary effortlessness and liberating melody.
As they seize the relentless draw of ‘Help Me’, Elliman wrenching her voice to let out a final cry for reprieve, the surprising melodic clout of their music really punches home the feeling that they possess some power.
Releasing on the suitably titled, new collaborative independent Post Mortem Records, wych elm’s debut EP ‘Rat Blanket’ is set for release on Friday 22nd March.
The band are set to play two headline shows in London and Bristol for So Young and Wax Music, dates below.
22nd March – The Social, London w/ Cruelty (Free entry). Tickets here.
23rd March – Rough Trade, Bristol. Tickets here.