(SXSW 2019 flavoured!) Bands to Watch #412: Breathe Panel
I’ve admitted publicly more than a few times here on TGTF that shoegazer slacker rock isn’t my cup of tea. I can appreciate that some find it the music and disaffected vocals great to chill out to, while other gear heads actually like the mechanics behind creating that oozy woozy, lazy sound. I don’t know why it’s taken me so many years to come to this conclusion: As an East Coast American with a Type A, neurotic, impatient personality, the sounds of guitar notes that aren’t played quite that precisely are probably what set me off. I think I could be making major strides here, as when I was going through the bands who were given a shout to SXSW 2019, I actually liked a band from this subgenre of rock! Ladies and gents, I bring you Breathe Panel.
The band use Brighton as their home base, so while their signing to local legendary FatCat Records isn’t entirely unexpected, it is worth applauding since there are so many fledgling artists there. Taking their location into account – being never too far from the soothing sounds of the lapping waves and evocative days and nights by the beach – their choice of swirling guitars and vocals oh so diaphanous that you couldn’t stick a pin in them make total sense. So do their noted influences of American bands Real Estate and Deerhunter, as well as their choice of producer for their debut album, MJ of Hookworms. On said album released last summer, they do their genre contemporaries proud, balancing upbeat, more agile numbers (‘On My Way’, ‘Sunrise / Sunshine’) with slower-moving ones (‘Hue’, ‘Red Wine Glass’). In that way, they’ve proven the name of their band is appropriate: panels are known to be solid and reliable, while ‘breathe’ describes the dreamy nature of their music well. Under the mood lighting found in many venues in Austin come nightfall, there’s sure to be those mesmerised by them.
