Baron - New Follower/ Comea (7" vinyl)

Reverb Worship put out a CD of these guys a while ago that I remember had this one amazing funky stomper on it that made it stand out from the glut of good stuff we were getting from them that week. There's a more restrained side to this band too, though, and that's what seems to be on display on the lead track from this 7”, a mystical-sounding and quite hi-fi bit of indie a bit like a gentle prog take on The National's moody miserablism. The flip is more interesting to me, where they pair funky Afrobeat guitars with gliding darkwave synths before heading into proggier territory with elastic riffs always anchored by the glacial synth drone and monotone vocals. It goes a bit Brian Ferry towards the end, too. Brilliant stuff. This is much more the kind of territory I'd like to see these guys focus on in the future. If I have a gripe here it's that this song sounds much more like an A side than the somewhat pedestrian A side does. Still, it only takes one good song to make a 7” worth buying and this one's a cracker.