Spirit of Eden
I saw Torches live two weeks ago at the excellent Binnacle Micro-Festival in Shoreditch (I’ll come back to that later with a report of last week’s CMJ in NYC too) and they confirmed the impression I immediately felt when listening to their songs. Actually, their little own bio describes with a lot of accuracy what they are :Torches are a London based quartet consisting of vocals, guitar, organ, drums and samples. With primal beats at the heart of their music, electronic-oriented rhythms combine with broody vocals and walls of both aggressive and atmospheric sound. Theirs is a frontman-led performance with a lyrical conscience and a healthy air of cynicism; guttural howls bring charge to the guitar and keyboard-heavy textures. They come up live with the same intensity as on record and they beneficiate of something that is so precious and rare these days : a charismatic singer with a strong presence, reminding me somehow of Jim Kerr in the early glorious years of Simple Minds. This makes a lot of difference on stage. The crowd is mesmerized by his performance and the band’s already rather epic material reaches new heights of intensity and drama. Torches’s near future should definitely be bright and incandescent.
Here is the video for their latest track, ‘VTOO’:
And a streaming of former song ‘Towerblock’ :
Towerblock - Torches by Nicsmith
