The Narrows

Sometimes I’m reminded of why I came to Manchester. Not for the weather, but for the fucking great bands that this city occasionally produces. Here, right here, we could have the makings of another Manchester legend. Like Delphic run through a dark ambient wringer, or Johnny Greenwood playing session on a Portishead record comes the Narrows’ debut, and it is fucking ESSENTIAL.

Stand-out tracks are, well, all of them- the rocky ‘Waterboarding’; the Muse-style conspiracy lyrics of ‘WTC7’; the swagger of ‘Noir’ or the multi-part harmonies that end ‘Poll’ are all fantastic. This is just such a great record- it just unpretentiously takes the existing trip-hop and electronica templates and quietly arranges them into something new and exciting; there’s Kid Adrift-style industrial musings and From the Kites of San Quentin post-rock and ambient sections, but it’s all held together with constant pulses that stop the attention of the listener from wandering too far.

Well what are you doing still reading this? Go and get the EP, it’s FREE for chrissakes! - High Voltage

We first caught The Narrows in an early afternoon slot at Friends Of Manchester in January where they set the bar pretty high for the rest of the day. Now poised to release a new single ("Initials MM", out 4th April) this is altogether a tighter band than even two months ago - and still delightfully strange. Visually striking, with singer and one-man synth / electronics laboratory Phil Drinkwater in the front floorspace about six inches from us and guitarists Adam Hynes and David Battle either side on the stage, they make twisted and dramatic progressive electronic pop that wilfully defies easy description or classification. As such they have precisely no contemporaries, although fans of the oddball sythnpop end of Mute Records' early-00s output might pick up traces of Echoboy; no space is left empty when it could be filled with a massive baroque keyboard choir or a sequence of dancey bleepery; and Phil's commanding vocals are passionate and paranoid in equal measure. The play just five songs and the excellent, towering single aside we don't catch the name of any of them, but just when we think there's no stone left unturned they'll throw in the additional joy of some squelchy techno noises or a coda of disco maracas. And they are consistently utterly brilliant. Whether you're one of those cynics that moans about all new bands sounding the same or an active new music fan constantly seeking out things to get excited about, go and see this band: the former will be proved wrong and the latter more than satisfied. - Manchester Music

for the fucking great bands that this city occasionally produces. Here, right here, we could have the makings of another Manchester legend. Like Delphic run through a dark ambient wringer, or Johnny Greenwood playing session on a Portishead record comes the Narrows’ debut, and it is fucking ESSENTIAL.

Stand-out tracks are, well, all of them- the rocky ‘Waterboarding’; the Muse-style conspiracy lyrics of ‘WTC7’; the swagger of ‘Noir’ or the multi-part harmonies that end ‘Poll’ are all fantastic. This is just such a great record- it just unpretentiously takes the existing trip-hop and electronica templates and quietly arranges them into something new and exciting; there’s Kid Adrift-style industrial musings and From the Kites of San Quentin post-rock and ambient sections, but it’s all held together with constant pulses that stop the attention of the listener from wandering too far.

Well what are you doing still reading this? Go and get the EP, it’s FREE for chrissakes!

- High Voltage Magazine