Not pinning your sound to any particular flag is a risk for any band starting out to take. For The Grand Wake with their debut EP ‘Silent Screen’, not being pigeonholed makes sense.  They are a relatively new band and can be anything they want to be before the masses start to scrutinise them for any deviation on style.

‘Silent Screen’ may have just the four tracks, but each one contains enough contrast to suggest that The Grand Wake have a lot left in their locker. It’s not overly original but Ordinary, a taut, rapid garage rock tune that bustles and bristles, does enough to snare the ears. Exactly what four young men with instruments ought to be doing.

The extended bass intro of Contact Sport is fairly generic, and while it hums menacingly, it’s overfamiliar. Thankfully the soaring tone of the chorus steers it away from being the song you thought it was going to be.

Cure is less orthodox and not as immediately likeable as the other songs on ‘Silent Screen’, slaloming into more reflective and complex territory, focused on atmosphere. It’s akin to the experimental work of Bleeding Heart Pigeons and not beholden to a traditional song structure.

Moving away from the indie blueprint, Suffragette is the standout song. Its organ lick lifts it out of the fog of derivative indie into the stratosphere. Brimming with life Suffragette is nothing less than life-affirming.

The Grand Wake is yet to segue into any particular style and claim it as their own. At times, they veer too close to generic indie rock, but there is substance here in the infectious nature of their songs.