Roscoe Roscoe Release New Single 'Jacob's Ladder'

With their explosive debut single, "Brain Retrieve" released during the height of 2020's pandemic-tarnished summer, East London based five-piece Roscoe Roscoe return with their dreamy new single "Jacob's Ladder," out on Slow Dance / Missing Piece Records. MXDWN said the song "astutely mixes synth-driven modern indie pop with classic psychedelia."

Psychedelic music has existed in many iterations, and Roscoe Roscoe are the latest to emerge from the prolific UK capital, initially noticed by many for their BBC televised performance at Glastonbury in 2019 despite having no released music. Guitarist Jacob Muna wrote the music for "Jacob's Ladder," "in a matter of minutes while I was playing around on the guitar watching TV. It almost wrote itself." The simplicity and natural flow of the track is a merging of influences - the melody recalls The Beatles, updated with hazy dream pop and glimmering shoegaze. When frontman Charlie Read Clarke added lyrics and verses to the arrangement, it became apparent that there was something special there.

"The process between the very first idea and final form was a lot quicker than normal," and the track is somewhere between a lullaby and an anthem, as celestial as the title implies. It was the obvious choice for following their debut, showcasing the band's spectrum of sonic capabilities and serving almost as a counterpart to the heavy burst of "Brain Retrieve." With warm, floating synths, feather-soft vocals and glowing guitars, Jacob's Ladder reaches out like a caress, pulling us from lockdown and into a summer of love. It connects immediately.

The band met at The Brit School (following in the footsteps of Black Midi, who also formed there) and came together through a shared love of 60s counterculture and psychedelia. Rather than sheerly revivalist, however, their music comes from being part of a generation who have been able to take non-specific and widely drawn sources via the infinite bank of the internet. Other influences the band have cited include avant-pop groups Stereolab and Broadcast and there are evident echoes of Wand, Tame Impala, and Crumb in their music too.

Their charged, inventive live performance has appeared on the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury in 2019 and at The Southbank Centre for Nile Rogers' Meltdown Festival within just a few months of their formation. The band went on to play medium sized venues around London, from cult haunt Brixton Windmill to Hackney's Moth Club and The Social for Huw Stevens Presents. Set to return to the stage again in June 2021 at The Windmill, then August 2021 with a headline show at The Shacklewell Arms, then a couple of festival appearances (Green Man Festival and Get Together in Sheffield), expect to hear more from this lot throughout the summer.

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Photo Credit: Holly Whitaker