Heroics - New Lovers EP

Article by KevW

Networking. It's always been a bit if a dirty word; the reserve of people who are famous for being famous and the uber-fashionable (in their heads at least), but since the internet went from being something people occasionally used in the days of d...i...a...l.... ...u...p... to the now universal tool that virtually everyone seems to use daily at much higher speeds, networking has changed completely. The ways it's changed the music industry are something you could write a book on, but what is increasingly apparent is that musicians from all over the world are now able to hook up and collaborate by discovering each other through a shared love of certain music online. In the case of many such collaborations, the people involved in the music haven't even met, they've simply sent files and ideas back and forth across the web and each added their own sections until a finished track or album is sounding just right.

London-based group Heroics haven't quite gone to that extreme, but they do admit that they were "born from the benefits of an Internet age", and a few members came and went before they settled on the current line-up fronted by Northern Irishman Graeme Wylie. They've been working on material for a while and released their debut single earlier this year, but their first EP 'New Lovers' is out later this week. The understanding they've built shows on these four songs, as does their shared tastes in music. 'New Lovers' is bold and comfortable, like a band in cruise control, they make it sound easy. Based around some nice harmonies and a solid and smooth rhythm section, the guitar is a little hypnotic and they also know how to change up a gear when needed. It may be the title-track and the lead single, but 'Worth Your While' is equally good and brings to mind The Postal Service (ironically, that was a long distance project before the broadband age when tapes had to be sent by mail, hence the band name) as well as other North American indie-pop groups. 'Ferrigno' continues the rich vein of form they've found here, keeping the standard of songwriting and arrangements high. It wouldn't have been out of place in the mid '90s either. Lastly, 'Break From Life' perhaps shows more ambition (not that they've been lacking in that department thus far) and experiments a touch more, changing time signatures and generally being that bit less conventional. For all its perceived faults and bad effects on the music industry, if the internet can be in part responsible for the creation of bands like Heroics then it's not time to throw away your expensive new tablet just yet.



Heroics' website





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