A New Wave of the 6-String

One of the stand out albums of last year was Days

by Real Estate, which made it to a lot of 2011′s ‘Best Of’ lists. In the same year The Drums released Portamento , a sophomore record that successfully served its purpose, with praise heaped on the band from blogs and magazines all over the world. While there have been bands who have regularly contributed to the world of guitar music with excellent releases in the last few years (I’m thinking Arctic Monkeys, Foals, The Black Keys, Bombay Bicycle Club and The Maccabees), we are starting to see a new take on the 6 string sound: an indie rock heavily influenced by Americana and vocal elements of the The Smiths-led shoegaze era.

The new wave of sound is being led by the Captured Tracks

trio DIIV , Wild Nothing and Beach Fossils , following on from the foot-in-the-door provided by Real Estate. These are bands worth keeping an eye on, and you’ll soon see why there’s a reason to start anticipating great things for the future of guitar music.

First up is DIIV. Their debut album Oshin got Manchester based promoters NowWave excited, playing them on their Beatwolf Radio slot as soon as they got their hands on a record. Led by Beach Fossils guitarist Zachary Cole Smith, who started DIIV (or ‘DIVE’ as it was then known) in his bedroom, their particular brand of ‘indie’ is full of americana inspired chord progressions, with a shoe gazing vocal laid over the top, but most interestingly is the citing of Malian guitarist Baba Salah, amongst others, who stimulated the project for Cole, taking it in a different direction from Beach Fossils. Fortunately, the resulting sounds are an invitation to get lost in tangly, sepulchral labyrinths far from this modern era, where you’re encouraged to focus all your concentration on something you can ‘like’ or re-tweet.

To continue our quest on Zachary C. Smith’s musical timeline, we must stop, get off and look at the view comprised of Beach Fossils. The staccato jangles, roller coaster bass lines and riffs filled with summer romance, they’re a band I like, quite a lot. Founded by Dustin Payseur as (yet another) solo recording project, we’re again glad this left the musical confines of the bedroom, producing an LP and an EP, Beach Fossils and What A Pleasure, with a host of singles dotted in and around each major release. Payseur is heavily influenced by poets, artists and philosophers alike, with the artist page on the Captured Tracks website listing Don Cherry, Ravi Shankar, Rumi, Lao-Tzu and Jean Cocteau as key influences. These inspirations are part of a writing process where collaborations with other band members from other bands like DIIV and Wild Nothing are also an integral part; a process which is ongoing with their sophomore LP penned for a late 2012 release.

The third and final member of this musical love triangle is Wild Nothing, overlapping with Beach Fossils, with main-man Jack Tatum contributing to the song “Out in the Way” on Beach Fossils’ What A Pleasure release. There are in fact two Wild Nothings, the solitary Tatum: one man in a studio, and his touring live band, which you can see play HMV Ritz on the 30th

of this month supporting the Walkmen. New release Nocturne garnered deserved plaudits of a similar ilk to début Gemini, but one area where reviews haven’t been so positive is their live performance. If they’d only look at the audience once in a while, seeing them play and listening to the album might start to be a different experience. However, ultimately, I feel like I have to finish on a positive note, Wild Nothing is one shy guy, surrounded by a few shy guys, making incredible C86 singles and records that are helping to define the role of the guitar in the indie music scene.

To leave the Captured Tracks trio behind, introducing two new, British guitar bands should now be priority. Father Sculptor

. Pale Seas . The former very Smiths esque (not necessarily a bad thing, but a claim that might just overshadow them) and the latter that is much more ambient, and having been featured last week on BBC Radio 6, are starting to climb the desired rungs in the business.

If you want to see what all the fuss is about, Wild Nothing play HMV Ritz on the 30th October, and DIIV frequent the Deaf Institute on the 20th November

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