WINDSHAKE - Waking Moment (2021) Hi-Res

Debut album from modestly labelled ‘psychedelic-folk-rock band based in Bristol’. Ged Babey hears a lot of potential and song-craftsmanship amongst the prog and psych weirdness. I gave up predicting the Next Big Thing in the world of popular music twenty six years ago when the people chose the Gallaghers instead of any number of superior bands… When Coldplay and Keane were commercial success stories and the public got what the public wanted I went underground and gave up following music with mass-appeal. That said: WINDSHAKE are going to be massive. They are a commercial proposition – Not in an obvious, deliberate way, but by virtue of great song-writing and an odd Englishness. They will appeal to lots of people, across the board.

I have also never understood why a lot of young artists make such ‘middle-aged’ music. Slow-paced, soul-searching stuff, dripping with melody and melancholy…. Why aren’t they full of rage and frenetic energy? Another reason that I should dislike WINDSHAKE. If everyone who eulogised the tedious Beatles Get Back yawn-athon actually cared about the future of music instead of it’s past, they should get hold of Waking Moment and make this band the massive success they deserve to be. It really is a future classic. Timeless, melodic, curious songs performed with a maturity and elegance. Windshake make graceful folk-psychedelia but basically it’s just great pop music. There are noticeable influences needless to say but its singer Sam Elliotts voice which goes from Thom Yorke style croon, Bolan warble to full-throated holler, which pulls you in. And the harmonies. The lyrics are strange and curious… ‘space travels in my blood’ style… and Elliot has the pale complexion and tumbling brown hair-style of Nick Drake.