Beat-aholics Anonymous

We should probably make it clear that Unknown isn’t totally unknown. There are one or two biographical nuggets regarding the very promising electronic musician floating around. We know, for example, that he’s a he. And that he’s from the north and has some previous form on the music scene. Barely Known is probably more apt. However, in this age of Twitter selfies and Facebook confessionals, I’d say Barely Known still counts as a radical stance.

His desire to stay anonymous comes from a sincere place. He doesn’t want the music obscured by irrelevant biographical guff. But as his career moves thrillingly through the gears – and the just released ICry EP is a real foot-down-and-hold-on-tight moment – Unknown’s reticence has, predictably, started to blow its own kind of obscuring smoke. So it’s good to know a slow-reveal is planned which, by the time of its conclusion, will leave us all free to concentrate solely on these wonderful songs.
Desert Hearts would no doubt be muttering ‘part-timer’ if they were to over-hear this. Here’s a band, after all, who’ve managed to sustain an aloof enigma for almost a decade and a half. That said, recent signs point to a melting of this perma-frost. In fact, with Enturbulation = No Challenge, Charley, Roisin and co have released an album that is straight-forward, big hearted and warmly approachable. Seriously. There are songs on this record that, gulp, you could sing along to.
Some long-term observers have been unsure of how to take this bold departure. They’ve walked away from their first encounter shaking their heads, muttering, swaying unsteadily down the street.
I’ve been backwards and forwards with these tunes for a few months now and I’m increasingly convinced that we could have a slow-burn classic on our hands. They always seemed admirably mysterious from afar, but now they’ve let us come closer they’ve turned out to be so much more interesting and lovable.
Little Bear come to us fully-formed. Tracks like ‘The Few And Far Between’ sound like they fallen off the last Fleet Foxes album and washed up on the banks of the Foyle. Sure of voice, huge of sound, florid of production: five minutes in the microwave would see them ready for a main stage slot in any festival of your choice. Champions of a more scuffed aesthetic may take flight, but I don’t think this band worry about that: it’s not a fan-base they’re after, it’s a congregation. 
Their new double A-Side single, ‘Night Dries Like Ink/‘Killer’, is out on July 15 and it sounds bigger than the moon.