Exclusive Wonderland session from psych-pop duo Coves

Coves have spent the last 18 months quietly acquiring critical acclaim and support from BBC Radio 1’s Zane Lowe, Huw Stephens and 6Music’s Lauren Laverne.  Their scuzzy cover of Chris Isaak’s haunting classic ‘Wicked Game’ peaked at No. 1 on the Hype Machine last year, an impressive feat for a band who, until recently, were unsigned.

Basements hung with fairy lights, 60s tape reels spinning antique spools, drums dusted with white powder. Gritty riffs and psych rock washes slither beneath airy, blissed-blank Nico vocals spinning spectral tales of shattered romance. A beautifully ruined pair – he a leather-clad glowering guitar phantom, she a glacial, broken bombshell – blow glitter at each other through the flashes from old cameras.

This is the world of Coves, a classic psych-garage aesthetic vacuum-sealed forever in one time, one space.

Coves have risen quietly, but elegantly. They have toured with Echo and the Bunnymen, Dutch Uncles and Eugene McGuinness and had their track ‘No Ladder’ remixed by new psych heroes Toy. Following a set at Latitude 2013 that found the band playing to a rammed and rapturous tent, they signed to the resurgent Nettwerk Records. The band have just embarked on another UK tour kicking of in Southampton last night and we were lucky enough to soend the afternoon with them to film an exclusive performance of  ‘Last Desire‘.

The album ‘Soft Friday’ is released on March 31st

Video: Jade Sukiya 

Words: Shane Hawkins