There’s a surge in purposefully badly recorded bands at the moment, all quivering under the umbrella of ‘Lo-Fi’. Personally, we prefer No-Fi. That probably already exists as a genre, but we can’t be bothered checking in with the hipsters that haunt our daily lives. In amongst these bands are some real gems (as most of them are shit) and one of them is the very pleasing Spectrals.
Spectrals cut a sound that has a great jingle-jangle, alongside a penchant for cute little melodies and road-movie slides. It’s all held together with an echoey ambience that sounds somewhere between ’50s rock ‘n’ roll and the sound of someone recording in a corrugated iron bunker.
‘Peppermint’ is the catchiest of the tracks heard by hecklerspray, with ‘Leave Me Be’ sounding like a vintage surf 45 that’s just been dug out of the soil. ‘7th Date’ meanwhile is a spooky Lynch soundtracker, which is always a nice thing.