Despite this song being out for over a year, we’ve only just been introduced to Branches. At first glance, it appears to be the band’s debut single. In actual fact, it is the band’s first new song in decades.
Existing since at least 2001, alternative rock quartet Dropping Honey hails from Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, but they come across as a combination of many foreign influences.
There’s the Jesus & Mary Chain shoegaze vibe, the hazy, lazy Mazzy Star pacing, a Richard Hawley-style (or should that be Duane Eddy-style?) shimmer to the guitar at times and a bit of a Brian Jonestown Massacre to the arrangement overall.
Branches is a curtain of sound. Like My Bloody Valentine before them, the noise the instruments make is mammoth, and it feels like there is virtually no space between them. This sensation is comforting rather than claustrophobic – like a warm, familiar, audible duvet on a cold night.
The band have been teasing a new album for years now. When the day does finally come, it’s going to be a good one.
Written by Kinda Grizzly
