Available on: Touch, forthcoming Tri Angle EP

Distant voices, garage drums and r’n’b samples manipulated to sound like ghosts, all under a grey haze of cold mist. Sound like something that’s been done before? It certainly does, but the now-Manchester-based Holy Other – like Pariah and Svpreme Fiend last year – proves that there’s still life left in the rainy day garage aesthetic when you’re willing to look outside the box a little.

The drums on ‘Touch’, the first taste of Holy Other’s forthcoming EP on Tri Angle, are slowed down to a crawl; rhythmically, in fact, it’s a lot like Becoming Real’s recent work, with a breakdown that almost borders on grandiosity. Rather than sounding familiar, ‘Touch’ breathes and moves so slowly and angularly that it’s like listening to a song waking up after being pronounced dead. Those gaps in the drums are like hearing something stop to take in a new, unfamiliar environment – it makes for fascinating, voyeuristic listening, but you wouldn’t want to get too close.

Anna Russell