Honesty – ‘Where R U’ EP review: A welcome diversion from Leeds post-punk
There’s a particular sound that has come to dominate and define the Leeds alternative music scene. Born out of Hyde Park basements and the Brudenell smoking area, that sound is driven by angular guitars, shouty vocalists and bands full of boys who wield tote bags and tightly packed pedalboards. There’s no shame in post-punk, but the genre has become increasingly oversaturated. West Yorkshire is in dire need of a shakeup. Enter: Honesty.
Strangely, Honesty find their roots firmly in that same celebrated guitar scene. Long before the band’s inception and long before post-punk lined the city’s streets, George Mitchell lent his vocals to the entrancing guitar soundscapes of Eagulls. Their twangy fingerpicking and shoegaze sensibilities preempted our current preoccupation with the sound. Their output still remains one of the most intricate iterations of the genre.
Almost a decade after Eagulls’ debut record, Mitchell has taken a sharp left turn into the electronic realm. Honesty sees him collaborate with a collection of creatives from around the Nave, one of Leeds’ most beloved studios and once home to Eagulls, to fuse his shoegazing, post-punk tendencies with the sounds of garage and ambient. It’s an ode to the city’s past but also a welcome departure from it, a glimpse at the future.
Opening with the atmospheric ‘NIGHTWORLD’, Where R U immediately sets the project apart from his former efforts and the pervading Leeds scene with pulsing drums and transcendent synths. Echoing words sit just above, contemplating the monotony of the every day, declaring, “As we spent our time just counting our days, comparing our lives, his or her vice.” It’s an opener that situates the EP, undeniably, in the electronic sphere, though the vocalist does evoke a Robert Smith-like quality in the way he pushes the start of every word he says.
But Honesty refuses to stay put on the EP, flitting between vocalists with ease. On ‘Mr. Speaker’, they opt for the muted rap stylings of Rarelyalways, while the closing track, ‘Seams’, revolves around the polished pipes of an uncredited female vocalist. They switch styles just as easily, channelling the influence of Burial in agitated soundscapes that glitch and glimmer in equal measure before quickly switching to a subtle ambience inspired by “ego death, Carl Jung and hallucinogens”.
Mitchell’s closest return to his roots comes in the EP’s closing moments. The percussion and twangy guitars sound as if they’ve been lifted straight from a post-punk record, but the synths that soar in the background offer a dimension of futurism, retaining the electronic basis of the record.
It doesn’t seem like Honesty set out to make Where R U with a solid sonic plan in mind, but that instinctive approach has only served to elevate their debut. It rejects the constraints of genre and the expectations of the city, instead favouring collaboration and experimentation but never compromising on polish or atmosphere. The result is an unexpected synthesis of sounds that seem more likely to fit into one of Leeds’ underground club venues than the Brudenell.
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