Arbes

Comparisons can be drawn to New York post-punk of a more colourful bent, running Blondie all the way through to Gang Gang Dance. Most prominent is the sense of something blissfully airborne tugged gently to the earth; that is Arbes’ own region.

Their EPs, 2015's 'Swimmer' and 2016's 'Psalms' remain Bandcamp dream-pop bestsellers. Their forthcoming debut album 'Counterways' (out November 1st, via Third Eye Stimuli & Earth Libraries) converge the mythical and the urban: dense, ghostly reverberation meets the functional whirring of a city.

Arbes create subtly forward-facing pop music, for its shape, its mood, but especially for its way of quietly inserting complications.

Arbes long-awaited debut 2024 album Counterways, exists on the cusp between ethereal and the more attention-seeking concerns of pop. The record invites listeners into an unusual sonic world of atmospheric depth. Comparisons can be drawn to New York post-punk of a more colourful bent, running from Blondie all the way through to Gang Gang Dance. The dream pop of Scotland’s Cocteau Twins has always been apparent, while the album’s gritty art rock juxtaposed by ambience brings to mind Deerhunter. Glimmering flashes of psychedelia lend from the likes of Melody’s Echo Chamber. 

The ten track album explores romantic dreaming and the struggle to (not) understand and to be understood. It memorialises glimmers of connection, discontentment and longing. Front woman Jess Zanoni explains; “Counterways reflects the multiplicity of emotional memory. It’s both confession, and a fear of this confession. Desire is the throughline across the record, manifesting in many conflicting selves”.