Wrexham?!DO YOU COME FROM WRECSAM? Yeah, Baby Brave are from North Wales and on the evidence of their latest ‘King Horse’ EP out last week, are set to seduce our ears in coming months. Baby Brave are Emmi Manteau (Guitar/Vocals), Steve Nicholls (Guitar), Mike Jones (Drums), and Sian O (Bass) who got together two years ago, they craft summery guitar pop of the exquisite kind, rippling with the ghosts of shoegaze, C86 and mid 80s art-pop, the outer tip of Wales has turned up another group with the ability to glide through genres and produce a individual sound that’s capable of making it out of the principality! Baby Brave are like a shaft of sunshine on a grey day, a pick me up on a bad day, a cuddle from someone you like. It’s typified by the effortlessly besotted jangle of sublime opener ‘Oyonnax’ shivers giddily with unrequited passion (“I know it’s madness amid all this beauty/I swear my head is swimming with….’) over the playful boy/girl pop signatures redolent of the B-52s and laced with a kick ass guitar lick that has a real bite. In clever French singer Emmi Manteau they have a voice of grace and might possessing a multi-dimensional quality: sinewy and knowing yet delightfully bittersweet, redolent of the attitude The Long Blondes Kate Jackson in one breath and in the next graceful with the weightiness of Kirsty Macoll.
‘Colours’ further beguiles a moodier beat, rippling guitars and Manteau’s ornate introspective yet playful anglo-french lyrics decorate this beauty that unfurls majestically. ‘Jitters’ cements the feeling that Baby Brave are something really special, tumbling drum beats and muscular rhythms cascade majestically, pivoting gloriously on the refrain ‘the earthquake starts in my head and it goes down to the tips of my toes’ it sounds a message to someone who stuck by you during the tough times. ‘Wrists’ in contrast is almost gothic, menacing bass and drums, pierced by plonking pianos and Manteau’s now nightmarish vocal it treads closely to the sound of early Esben and the Witch and depicts a group bristling with a diversity and arsenal of sounds. With this awesome debut EP that resembles a elongated letter, to a loved one who confuses and excites in equal measure.Wrexham’s most exciting new beat-pop combo Baby Brave aren’t just brave baby they are bloody brilliant!#
The band have supported Charlotte Church, Slow Club, and Stealing Sheep; and will be heading out on the road to play anywhere and everywhere in support of their latest E.P. ‘King Horse’ out now on the Drum With Our Hands label. Upcoming Dates: 10 AUG / LEGENDARY FAERY FESTIVAL / LLANGOLLEN 14 AUG / THE NORTH / RHYL 28 AUG / TELFORDS / CHESTER
