Witterquick - The Otherside, debut single review

Layers of Talent

Exeter based band Witterquick, playing together since July 2013, release their debut single The Otherside next month. This is a more than catchy rockpop number: the opening guitar lines meld into a rising riff that is electrifying until lead vocalist Will Alford introduces the descending melodic lines that form the song’s core. This is fine singing. This is anthemic singing and song-writing. This is a song that merges those guitar clutches with memorable melody and then moves to a musical denouement of calmed but beautiful harmonies echoing that by now firmly established core [and those harmonies bear some close listening: they are perfectly layered and performed]. It is a tightly structured and excellently played song where the internal variations reflect a mature sense of song-craft. You should and can hear it here. It is also worth checking out another of their solid numbers, Wayward Signs here, and what I like about this is its folk roots but also the fact that this folk touchstone represents another aspect of the band’s emerging talent in shifting from that rockpop debut release to this genre. Again, Alford’s singing is warmly affecting, and the vocal harmonies are developed across the whole track. There is just in these two songs an indication of the breadth of talent in the band, exemplified in their playing – acoustic here – and as I have already mentioned, their clear song-craft.

Band members are Will Alford, Ollie Chanter, Ben Chanter, Joe Napper and Nathan Boult. I have heard some in former band Electric Skies – reviewed here – and it is good to see all five of these young musicians continuing to present such solid material.