The pandemic has been an absolute disaster for the world, putting it lightly. Every now and then however a wee ray of light glints through and brings us a moment of joy. Such is the music of LA based musicians, Lauren Andino and Glenn Fryatt.
During 2020 Andino began posting snippets of guitar and Moog compositions from her rehearsal space online as a pandemic sound journal. Fryatt was rehearsing in the same building, heard her music and wondered if she wanted to add drums. The rest, they say, is history.
In August 2021 TREMOURS released ‘Downtown Demos’, a three-song EP of demo recordings which blew my mind. This trio of tracks really got the buzz going about the band. ‘Burn to Today’ especially piquing my interest.
Fast forward to today and the band have just released the Affectations EP on Little Cloud Records. I asked Lauren to tell me a bit about how writing and recording this EP differed from the Downtown Demos?
“The songs on this Affectations EP were written around the same time as the downtown demos, but the recording was different. We went into a real studio (Golden Beat) to track drums and vocals. I recorded the guitar and Moog parts at our rehearsal space though, same as before. And for these new tracks, James Aparicio mixed them at his studio in London.”
The EP opens on the title track. Andino’s breathy vocals are solid as a rock throughout, leading us, like a mantra, into her dream. Her guitar lines are like shards of glass ringing in the sunlight playing off the pulsing Moog backing. Fryatt’s drums are incredibly thoughtful, picking out the gaps nicely, building in complexity to a quite wonderful conclusion.
The band turn in their reimagining of my fellow Scot’s The Jesus and Mary Chain with ‘On The Wall’. It gets off to a pacy start with Fryatt’s drums calling the shots. Andino’s signature guitars come in picking out the melody. Every so often a wail of looming fuzzed out feedback comes into earshot threatening to envelope the whole song before disappearing again. It’s Andino’s hypnotic vocals that focus our attention and guide us through to the realisation at the end of the song, “I’m like the clock, On the wall”.
The EP closes on the pulsing Moog polyrhythms of ‘Port Children’. Quite different in texture to the previous tracks it’s a fitting close to the EP with its more muted tones. Leaning into the psychedelic scene with its raga drones and cyclical vocal pattern. The explosive coda elevates this song to my EP highlight and there couldn’t be a stronger finish to the EP than this. Leave em begging for more!
This duo has bloomed into something really quite special. Andino brings mind and soul to the music whilst Fryatt is the heart and pulse. One cannot exist without the other. The ambient soundscapes, the swells and waves of the guitar and Moog are brought into focus with the strict punctuation of the drums. Translating them into the tightly formed songs you hear on this EP. I can’t wait to hear what’s next.
The Affectations EP is available now from Tremours Bandcamp page. The band have a couple of Los Angeles live dates coming up, catch them if you can.
AUG 21 SUN Harvard & Stone @ 8:00pm Los Angeles, CA, United States
OCT 13 THU Zebulon @ 8:00pm Los Angeles, CA, United States
You can follow Tremours on social media here….
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