Unconventional West Country alt-pop quartet Minor Conflict are yet another one of those bands fusing pop with avant garde with quirky additional instrumentation thrown in for good measure.
Don’t let that put you off though, the twin vocal assault of razor sharp lyricist Josh Smyth (vocals, bass) and oddly detached Nathalie Whitehead (vocals, harp) combine to paint an austere take on twenty-first century Britain. Completing Minor Conflict’s line-up are Robbie Warin (trumpet, keyboards, sampling) and Marcus Jeffrey (drums).
Following on from last year’s woozy dystopian single ‘Office Block’ was always going to be a big ask but 4-track EP ‘Bright Lights, Dead City’, released on Prah Recordings, takes things to a new level, fusing St Etienne suburban cool, the skittishness, idyll proneness of Black Country New Road and the wistful nostalgia of Betjeman. Taut, urgent opener ‘White Ring Binder’ invites the listener into the eerily voyeuristic scenario of unwanted eyeballs reading someone else’s diary, words never designed to be seen by anyone but the author. Whitehead alternates between curt matter-of-factness and ethereal opera swimming around Smyth’s matter of fact delivery, all propelled by a taut rhythm section, brass and harp vying for attention around the edges.
The music-hall tinged ‘Second Hand Time’ boasts the lyrics adorning the EP’s title although the song’s most telling lyrics ‘grey visions on a grey afternoon’, really capture its humdrum disaffection. Hypnotic ‘Living Statue’ is seemingly an ode to the joyless repetition of being part of the rat race whilst funereal yet freeform closer ‘Platform Two,’ sounds a little different, perhaps due it being recorded at J&J studios in Bristol, the preceding trio laid down at Glasgow’s Green Door studios.
Promising.
Words - Mike Price
Minor Conflict official