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. The space is Castle Grayskull, the live-in studio that musical mastermind John Ridgard helped build in a disused office in Leamington Spa and where their debut album was recorded. And the time covers the duration of singer and lyricist Beck Wood's last big relationship, laid out in her songs from first flutter to final choke.
2014 has seen them tour the UK with Band of Skulls and, in support of the release of ‘Soft Friday’, they are currently in the midst of a summer packed full of festival performances, including The Great Escape, Glastonbury and Secret Garden Party. This Autumn they will head to the US to join The Raveonettes on tour.
