Dark Bells – ‘Wildflower’
wild·flow·er
/ˈwīldˌflouər/
Noun
A flower of an uncultivated variety or a flower growing freely without human intervention.
Sometimes, there is no need to introduce a band with a well-thought opener as there simply isn’t any point. No sometimes, a canny bit of contextualisation does, in fact, play detriment to art that, as a mere music journalist, your lavish lexicon and vocabulary can only veil.
Sometimes, a song just speaks volumes for itself. This is especially so with the Dark Bell’s tune ‘Wildflower’ that, irrespective of their forthcoming appearance at the Beacons Festival this weekend, become the focus of our attention. If they continue to grow at this rate, they will make many more music headlines, I’m sure.
You might have guessed, I’m tempted to leave only the above definition for you to base any kind of opinion on the celestial three piece from Sydney, not out of laziness, I hope you would understand, or in any vain effort to make a bold artsy statement but, out of sheer necessity.
‘Wildflower’ could just as easily play the soundtrack to a ketamine-laced dream as it could a spiritual awakening and it’s this transcendental, sonic ambiguity that makes the track truly captivating: The guitar can’t help but evoke The Verve at their finest as the song dips and swirls into the same quality of depth Richard Ashcroft and the band do on their psychedelic doused opening records yet, perpetuated by vocal effects the same, almost sinister undertones of several Death In Vegas efforts leap out through the speakers at varying stages within the four-minute long, wild, flowering mind-warp.
Their billing on the You Need To Hear This stage is certainly apt and I for one will exploring my psyche with the group during their set this weekend.
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