Wintermute - Fun With Wizard Stencils EP Review

Wintermute, Fun With Wizard Stencils EP Review

Discordant specialists Wintermute may be based in Leeds but their unconventional, jerky dispositional pop owes just as much to the Stateside uneasiness of Q And Not U or even multi-functional experimentalists The Dismemberment Plan as it does any kindred spirits from up north, or indeed anywhere on British soil.

Take lead track ‘Bad Company In A Sauna’ for example. In just under three minutes, the song engages in more twists and turns than repeated excursions on Alton Towers’ infamous Corkscrew ride whilst still managing to retain a focus that suggests Wintermute’s approach to songwriting is leagues ahead of many of their more lauded (at present) contemporaries.

Want further evidence? Look no further than ‘Emerald Hill Zone Act 2’ that actually bridges the divide between shambolic shouty punk and organic dance-rock in one timely, cross-stitch like manoeuvre while the EP’s stand-out moment, ‘Spanish Girls’, is simply executed bliss that recalls the likes of Orange Juice and Josef K without overexerting any strains of forced edginess, like a certain quintet from Oxford seem to feel they have to do to justify their existence.

‘Fun With Wizard Stencils’ is further evidence that Yorkshire seems to be a hive of creativity at present, and Wintermute have all the right ingredients to make a challenge for the helm in the not too distant future.

8/10

Dom Gourlay