Track Of The Day : Pumarosa – Honey

We’re not sure what upset us most at Festival No.6 , the weather, the state of the carpark, the general sense of chaos or the fact that Pumarosa’s set was cancelled on health and safety grounds. (We even had half-baked idea we would try and track them down at the festival and force them to sing for us in exchange for free beer.)

However, their latest recording ‘Honey’ and their first for Fiction records has chased some of the grey clouds away and serves to reaffirm our belief that this East London based quintet are a very special proposition indeed. Their music is not really genre specific and as such is a tad tricky to classify in a de rigueur one-size fits all media-friendly (& invariably f*ckwitted) soundbite, all we can say is they are AMAZING, both live and on record.  They fuse styles effortlessly taking in electro, rock, dance and despite the damage inflicted by Kenny Gee over many years, even manage to make the much-maligned saxophone sound sexy again.

The band came together when singer-songwriter Isabel Munoz-Newsome’s previous band split and she began to write her own songs, with no specific game-plan. She reached a point when felt she needed collaborators to really bring these songs to life and so Pumarosa evolved quite naturally into the band it is now. ‘Honey’ seems more strident and angry, yet is as equally compelling as their previous offerings. Spiralling flanging guitars, electronic flourishes and Isabel’s strident vocal delivery that resides somewhere between Patti Smith and Grace Slick all combine to produce something, urgent, beautiful, impassioned and heartfelt.

If we were an incomprehensible, interminably over-excited Kiwi fruitcake like, say ooh, Zane Lowe? We’d probably say something along the lines of  ‘Pumarosa are the hottest band in the UK right now’ , the thing is we’d actually mean it …

 

Catch them live
USA
20/09/2016 || San Francisco || Rickshaw Shop (Headline show)
21/09/2016 || Los Angeles || The Echo (Headline show)
25/09/2016 || Washington || Echostage w/ Glass Animals
26/09/2016 || Philadelphia || The Fillmore w/ Glass Animals
29/09/2016 || New York || Terminal 5 w/ Glass Animals
30/09/2016 || Boston || Blue Hill Pavilion w/ Glass Animals
01/10/2016 || Ithaca || State Theatre w/ Glass Animals
02/10/2016 || Toronto || Sound Academy w/ Glass Animals
04/10/2016 || Columbus, OH || Express Live w/ Glass Animals
05/10/2016 || Milwaukee || The Riverside w/ Glass Animals
06/10/2016 || Chicago || The Rivera Theatre w/ Glass Animals
07/10/2016 || Mineapolis || Myth w/ Glass Animals
08/10/2016 || Brooklyn || Rough Trade (Headline Show)UK
20/10/2016 || Brighton || Green Door Store
21/10/2016 || Wales || SWN Festival
22/10/2016 || Manchester || White Hotel
23/10/2016 || Leeds || Belgrave Music Hall
24/10/2016 || London || Village Underground
27/10/2016 || Bristol || Louisiana
31/10/2016 || Dublin || WhelansEUROPE
03/11/2016 || Brussels || Botanique w/ Glass Animals
04/11/2016 || Amsterdam || Paradiso w/ Glass Animals
05/11/2016 || Hamburg || Mojo w/ Glass Animals
07/11/2016 || Berlin || Columbia Theatre w/ Glass Animals
08/11/2016 || Prague || Roxy w/ Glass Animals
09/11/2016 || Budapest || Akyarium w/ Glass Animals
10/11/2016 || Vienna || Wuk w/ Glass Animals
12/11/2016 || Zurich || Plaza w/ Glass Animals
20/11/2016 || Paris || Les Inrocks26/11/2016 || Hong Kong || Clockenflap
27/11/2016 || Singapore || Neon Lights Festival

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