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Forest, 'John' -- Song Premiere

Courtesy Tip Top Recordings

Yes, Forest is a band of boys from England. No, they are nothing like One Direction. The young Cambridge five-piece self-produced their Sweetcure EP fresh out of college, in the interest of introducing their feel-good take on garage rock to the world on their own terms.

Their sound is nothing if not referential, with a fine assortment of familiar sounds both new and old -- the reverberant, distorted guitar and bass recall that of Sonic Youth or My Bloody Valentine, and lead songwriter and vocalist Henry Barraclough's delivery is not unlike Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner.

"All of us have been making music since we met at age 14, though Hugo joined us later when we decided we wanted a fuller sound, with more guitar and vocals, and that's when we formed as Forest around a year and a half ago," Barraclough tells Spinner. "We worked on our Sweetcure EP as a way to get away from our end of high school exams, and managed to get it done before our gap year started, which has now let us focus on our music. We've been likened to Dinosaur Jr., Pavement and various shoegaze bands like My Bloody Valentine and Ride, though given the way most of us listen to music, our influences really come from a jumble of songs rather than a specific set of bands that we love."

If this namedropping is piquing your interest, we strongly recommend giving Forest a good listen (instead of getting stuck in the obligatory picking apart of potential reference points). We'll get you started with a free stream of "John" off their new EP, so get to listening.





Buy/Download Forest - 'Sweetcure' EP

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