Just last month we used the release of the grinding rough edges of Escapists “Breaking It Up” to take heart from the fact that guitar music is far from dead. We eulogised over their big, ambitious rock sounds and the fact that acts like Embers, Velvet Two Stripes and Courtly Love are out there giving it some riffs as well. As much as we love all the dreamy and heady electropop, the bright glorious synthpop and the often dark digital sounds that are prominent at the moment, we do still love a good angular judder of guitar and boom of stick on skin as the drums are pounded to oblivion.
Mind you it seems that the lure of the electronic mistress is hard to resist and, judging by their latest release, even Escapists themselves have been drawn in by her seductive charms. Her binary mini-dress shows off just enough circuitry to send a tingle to your hard-drive as she entices you to join her digital fellowship.
Not that we are complaining mind you, as by re-working “Breaking It Up” into a ‘Late Night’ version, Escapists are giving us the best of both worlds. The whirling G-force of the guitars are still there, but they’ve been given a more languid feel whilst simultaneously being beefed up with a little 8-bit synthology. In fact, the whole thing seems steeped in a little retro-gaming nostalgia with digitised flourishes adding a pixelated fuzziness; a cosmic blend of galaxial colour and infinite darkness to the previously raw indie soundscapes.
With beats and bass that evoke memories of The Knife, that deep rumbling digital grind is offset by a beacon amongst the stars that is the light falsetto vocal. The chorus is still a grand stadium filler and the whole thing feels vast and expansive; a woozy swirl of guitars, synths, bass, beats and some 8 bit fun.
Guitar music isn’t dead, far from it, but we do love it when it hooks up with electronica for a dirty one-night stand like this.
”Breaking It Up late night” is available as a free download from the player below.
Alphabet Bands 
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