EP Review: Winter Gardens – Tapestry

Brighton’s Winter Gardens, as opposed to the more familiar Blackpool variety that hosts the Rebellion Festival, are set to release the “Tapestry” EP on the 25th September via the band’s own newly minted imprint, Austerity Records. The “Tapestry” EP is one that draws influence from the heady days when Creation and 4AD bands stalked the earth and dominated the underground airwaves, though that isn’t the end of the story, there are elements of everything from shoegaze and dream pop through to garage punk, punk and post-punk embedded in the grooves in the four tracks that populate the EP.

The EP’s title track features an atmospheric and almost ethereal introduction that ushers you gently into Winter Gardens, this is followed by ‘Zigzanny‘, a track that offers a pounding fuzzy contrast to the opening track, one that maintains their otherworldly qualities but offers a drastically different delivery. The “Tapestry” EP continues to ebb and flow like no other other release I’ve encountered this year, ‘Laminar Flow, Pt 1‘ reveals yet another facet of Winter Gardens with a gentle understated instrumental that drifts over you before the ‘Tapestry‘ EP closes with ‘Wonders Bleak‘, an epic spaced out soundscape of dreamy shoegaze.

When I first read the press release the phrase ‘dream punk’ was used to describe Winter Gardens, at first I was dismissive of another sub-genre being introduced to a scene groaning under the weight of them, but after experiencing the “Tapestry” EP ‘dream punk’ feels about right for an EP that pulls influences from across the UK’s indie and post punk scenes, but also delivers something original that stands on it’s own. “Winter Gardens” are another fine example of Brighton’s burgeoning and unique music scene, the four tracks contained on the “Tapestry” EP can each stand alone but it’s only when you put them together that you get the whole picture.

The “Tapestry” EP is available on ‘purple dream’ vinyl via Austerity Records here