Available on: Downwards 7″

The last single to be released on Downwards – a three-track EP of snotty, Cramps-indebted rock ‘n roll by American band Dva Damas – will have struck many as an anomaly in the label’s techno-rooted catalogue. However, this new 7″ from Six Six Seconds suggests that such anomalies may be becoming the norm.

Six Six Seconds is apparently the brainchild of someone called Eden, with Francis Berine lending percussion and Downwards boss Karl O’Connor (AKA Regis) credited with “location recording”. Anyone who heard O’Connor and Juan Mendez’s Sandra Electronics 10″ from earlier this year will recognise the former’s influence here.

‘She Can’t Say’ draws from shoegaze’s familiar sonic kitty, but ups the distortion to the point where it’s asphyxiating. Like asphyxiation in general, it’s great to begin with, but quickly gets uncomfortable; thankfully Six Six Seconds know when to quit, pulling the plug not long after the two-minute mark. It’s a track that rewards repeat visits, and subsequent listens do reveal more of the track’s beautifully formed skeleton, notably its mid-range chord progressions and haughtily sashaying rhythm.

‘Surrender (Your Heart)’ is dreamier and less clogged, Spectorish drum tattoo underpinning ethereal vocal layers and the kind of zig-zagging, molten guitar riffage that Kevin Shields patented way back when. Thanks no doubt to the way that O’Connor models and marshals even its wildest-roaming elements,  ‘Surrender (Your Heart)’ has a bite to it that your average buck-toothed nu-gazer could only dream of.

Trilby Foxx