Feral Children on Leaning Trees Records

You can never judge a single by its cover…especially when its something like this abstract cut up photo pattern on the Feral Children single from Leaning Tree Records.
The random crate digging through new submissions reminds me of the days before the Internet when I spent my heard earned money on cover art alone. This unassuming cut and paste psych design could be describing basically anything and I think that’s why I had to put it on, the possibilities of where this could be going were too much to bear.

Feral Children delivered on A-Side’s "Reverb" which to invoke its name might even be going to far? It shouldn’t even be written, its just re-erb, the holiest of holy sounds. Catchy drums, weird soaring and crashing guitar tones in an AM loop caught between two melodies. The vocals trapped in the top of this net of new wave manic sound. This could be worrisome… nervous chatter over lush repetition and this lyric 'REVERB!" in a dance groove and then forgetting that this should be something to dance to. There’s a hint of warble when the vocals get passionate about where this should be going but it’s nothing compared to this warped tape melodic loop that’s coming from another place entirely. Like a piled up sample that’s never been processed, let’s say, anti-mastered to keep the hissy layers between takes. There’s a decidedly lo-fi feel to the bleeps here, as they fade out the bit rate reduces into gritty square groans and glitchy spirals. That makes this all the more exciting, listening to the residual electronics piled around. You didn't even know it until it started to leave. Like the Netflix stream that's given up on supporting the audio track, it's a hard edge mess of robotic vocals hanging onto this instrumentation.

B-Side’s "Ancient videotape" reveals mellow loops of guitar notes, slow keys and even breathier vocals with explosions of choral high notes pinging into each other like this possible violin? Stretches of fast, quick notes work against this Tortoise like instrumental (the band, it’s also a slow tempo) and ghostly vocal. A repeating electric deftly holds this together with high notations weaving around while a subtle, hardly tapped out kick beat softy pounds. On this side Feral Children have gone in an almost instrumental Explosions direction in that timid delivery waiting for a massive release. Like You Forgot It In People the magic with these two tracks is how they can find a commonality in such different jumping off points. They make this feel cohesive from what should be a split from two different bands. It’s a weird mellow charm like Rex that can be so comforting… and on a B-side where the flip had muddled indie dance creeping back on the scene. Where the heck are these guys from? (Sakatoon! - ed) (NOT THE SEATTLE FERAL CHILDREN - ed)

It's one dollar fifty cents from Leaning Trees Records! Get this.