Bristol (UK) based band, The Winters, release their latest single, Echo, and we’ve been taking a few listens to it here at the Send Me Your Ears studio this morning.
Echo comes straight in with punch and power. You know that you’re in for a great indie rock ride.
The drums are interesting with some lovely stereo, especially in the toms. We especially like the very subtle use of the 16 beat tambourine that comes in just before the first vocal line.
There’s lots happening and many different aspects to listen to throughout Echo. Some superb, well placed, harmonies come and go to bolster up the lead vocal and give it some extra edge. This is done so well that we feel this is a band that would really benefit from doing considerably more harmonies!
The lead vocal is thin and metallic sounding. Reminding us in places of Placebo’s Brian Molko, his voice carries through over the song and sits clearly in the mix.
The chorus is particularly catchy and we felt by the second time around that it was a song that you would want to join in with if you were to see The Winters in a live situation. if you get the chance – we think you should. There’s some great energy and chemistry amongst these guys.
The break down in the middle of the track with vocals and bass is a nice change of pace, with some rather superb, bright and metallic sounding bass, reminiscent of Jason Newsted’s style of playing.
Our favourite section was the rather cool instrumental section towards the end with some interesting timing and rhythmic patterns which built to a stinger ending.
This is a well recorded track which in our opinion could use just a little EQ balancing. A shelf cut from around 130-140Hz would reduce some boominess and allow the other instruments some more room. In our opinion, there is a little too much character in the area of around 1.5kHz to 2kHz so a cut there would balance things out a little. Finally a quite large shelf boost (maybe 5dBs?) in the top two octaves would bring out the clarity in the vocals as well as the cymbals, tambourine and snare wires. These are just our thoughts and in no way detract from a great track!
The Winters’ latest single, Echo, is a powerful indie rock track which speaks to those of us trying to break free from hard times. We really enjoyed the feel of this song and look forward to more releases from this promising group.