Manchester trio announce their arrival with debut single ‘Head First’, showcasing a distinctive and unpredictable sound that draws on the spirit of their roots while injecting it with a fresh, experimental edge.
Already making a name for themselves on the Manchester music scene, The Sly have built momentum through a sold-out headline show at Gullivers, support slots with Seb Lowe across the North, and their striking mural on the shutters of Vinyl Exchange in the Northern Quarter. The trio have generated a palpable a buzz within Manchester’s underground scene and have awoken, and left their mark on the streets that shaped them.
‘Head First’ showcases an artistic approach to traditional songwriting, combining a melting pot of post-baggy fuelled rhythms, new-wave grit that forges infectious grooves and slacker-esque crescendo’s that twist and coil with changeful explosive momentum.
Just when you think you know where Elijah Butterworth’s chiming guitar chords and Chris Bell’s post-punk bass lines are leading, the trio pull the rug from under you and boot you off into a completely different direction all together – becoming lost and captivated within the unpredictable meanderings of the alchemy that the trio carefully conjure.
Structured yet inventive time-signature shifts create a hypnotic effect, recalling the free-flowing improvisation of early Grateful Dead while drawing clear influence from the motorik experimentation of German krautrock pioneers Can.
Frontman and singing drummer Levon Gill, the son of the late Craig ‘Gilly’ Gill of Inspiral Carpets, channels the expressive vocal range and angular intensity of early Tom Verlaine, while carrying a proud Mancunian lineage that carves the raw, inventive style of The Sly.
At five minutes and twelve seconds, ‘Head First’ embodies the trio’s audacious, ‘do-what-we-want’ mentality, pushing firmly against the conventions of mainstream pop and paving their own way through the music scene in a bold and unapologetic fashion.
‘Head First’ by The Sly self-released on 29th May available to stream on all digital platforms now.
Listen here: ffm.to/head-first
