Handwaxx have unveiled the first single from their forthcoming EP, and it has the soaring but seering majesty you’ve come to expect from the trippy trio. ‘In My Mind’ has already received riotous plaudits and extensive airplay, and it contains all the hallmarks of the Birmingham band’s reverb-drenched rock.
If you’ve seen Handwaxx live, you can always depend on two things – one is Ryan Baynham’s delightfully droll and drunken stage banter, while the other is a tight, rhythmic trip of echo-laden music that is frayed around its magic carpet edges. ‘In My Mind’ delivers on Handwaxx’s superb concerts, beginning with Baynham’s trademark trebly guitar chug, which is deliciously bathed in reverb, before evolving into a soaring slice of psychedelia that relaxes and rouses in equal measure.
Canvassed with florid bass and pounding drum work, ‘In My Mind’ has enough lo-fi tendencies to keep it from crossing over into polished production, but has enough nous about it to sound more than at home on the radio (where it will be nestling for quite a while, one suspects). With his voice like a ’60s-inflected Damon Albarn, Baynham bellows brilliantly over squealchy, but unintrusive, synths and his own gallant guitar work.
With more gigs lined up, expect ‘In My Mind’ to stay, well, in your mind for the forseeable future.
