Jaguwar - Ringthing

  by Kimberly Bright

published: 26 / 3 / 2018

---

It has taken five and a half years for German shoegaze darlings Jaguwar to get around to crafting their impressive debut album. The trio was formed in Berlin during the summer of 2012 by Oyèmi Hessou (vocals and bass) and Lemmy Fischer (vocals and guitars), adding drummer Christoph Krenkel in 2014. After, as their Bandcamp page claims, “losing all their money in buying tons of amps, effects, guitars and my bloody valentine vinyls” they released two EPs, 'I EP' and 'II EP', on Prospect Records and played extensively in Europe and the UK whenever possible. In 2016 the band approached Tapete Records via e-mail, asking to be hired as the support act on the Telescopes’ upcoming tour. Once the staff at Tapete were well and truly smitten by Jaguwar’s music, they sent them off to Tritone Studio in Hof, Bavaria last year – “armed with an impressive array of effect devices, guitars, bass and amps, backed up by a prodigious supply of coffee and cigarettes” - to record their debut album, Ringthing. The record is a ride through 80s' synthpop at its very best, shimmery New Romantic era, onward toward the Cure’s 'The Head on the Door' period ('Crystal', 'Gone', 'Week'), with wall of sound, classic dream pop ('Night Out'), and shoegaze thrown in, dominated by Ride (“Slow and Tiny”) and noisy My Bloody Valentine (“Whale”). Fittingly, they covered Ride’s 'Today' on the tribute album 'Leave Them All Behind: A Tribute to Ride' in 2016. It’s also not surprising that the band mentions MBV by name in their Bandcamp blurb; it wouldn’t be a shock to learn that they all have tattoos paying homage to MBV. There are many reminders of Robert Smith’s vocal style and the Cure in general, but there’s also hints of Modern English, the Three O’Clock, A Flock of Seagulls, and the Teardrop Explodes. Everything on 'Ringthing' is crafted as precisely and as carefully as a high-end German car nobody can afford: they describe their sound as “noise and detail,” which can’t be argued in the slightest, and were so perfectionistic that, as they continued to add details and layers, they threw their label’s deadlines out the window. They wanted a “soundshape which is blended by walls of guitars but even sparkled with sweet purple stars,” and with these ten songs this lofty goal has been successfully achieved many times over.

Track Listing:-

1 Lunatic
2 Skeleton Feet
3 Slow and Tiny
4 Gone
5 Crystal
6 Night Out
7 Whales
8 Away
9 Week
10 End

Band Links:-

https://jaguwar.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/jaguwarmusic

Label Links:-

http://www.tapeterecords.de/
https://www.facebook.com/tapeterecords
https://twitter.com/tapete
https://www.youtube.com/user/tapeterecords/videos

Post A Comment

---

Comment

Name

your name

Location

ie London, UK

Submit

Check box to submit

Adam Coxon
Adrian Janes
Amanda J. Window
Andrew Twambley
Anthony Dhanendran
Benjamin Howarth
Cila Warncke
Daniel Cressey
Darren Aston
Dastardly
Dave Goodwin
Denzil Watson

Dixie Ernill
Dominic B. Simpson
Eoghan Lyng
Fiona Hutchings
Harry Sherriff
Helen Tipping
Jamie Rowland
John Clarkson
Julie Cruickshank
Kimberly Bright
Lisa Torem
Maarten Schiethart

Malcolm Carter
Marie Hazelwood
Mark Rowland
Nick Dent-Robinson
Nicky Crewe
Nige Nudds
Philamonjaro
Richard Lewis
Shirley Procter
Spencer Robertshaw
Steev Burgess
Steve Kinrade

Steve Miles
Tommy Gunnarsson
Zena Grieg