A potent attention-grabber ahead of the band’s debut album, ‘This Haze’ is evidence of Manchester quartet Patterns’ drowned-in-sound approach. Trembling guitar arpeggios ring out from great washes of feedback and keyboard sustain, bolstered by pounding tribal toms. Blissed-out vocals deliver a final layer of irregular melody, the lyrical unintelligibility just adding to the hallucinatory whole. As if Bloc Party dropped acid at a Baggy revue and cranked up the fuzzbox, ‘This Haze’ is more intriguing soundscape than instant smash, but is certainly satisfying enough to flag up that January album as one of 2014’s early essentials.
Patterns’ Waking Lines (Melodic Records) is out on 6 January
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