Review by Erin Winter
Uncanny Valley
Forming in late 2021, Newcastle based band Uncanny Valley have been spending their time developing their sound, song writing and recording their first two singles. ‘Only a Fool’, released in June, alongside their most recent single, ‘Take Me Back’ released Friday 28th October. The five members Alex, Ben, Josh, Patrick and Dylan met whilst studying their degree in music.
The band describe themselves as self-produced bedroom artists, writing, recording and producing all their music themselves which has allowed them to gain complete creative control and has granted them to use their true talent to the best of their abilities.
Breaking out of the Alt Rock scene, the band has made appearances at several local venues, selling out their debut headline gig at The Cluny 2. And if you like what you hear the band will be playing two headline shows very soon, Little Buildings on November 12th, as well as Bobiks on the 15th of December, make sure to get along.
Photo: @holdooleyart
‘Take Me Back’
The song starts off with an intriguing intro of the instrumental section reversed. This helps give the song the melancholy feeling portrayed throughout, especially by the lead guitar that follows.
The chords used by the guitar and piano intertwine with each other perfectly setting the mood for the drums and bass to follow in their own interesting structure with an amazing use of dynamics, dropouts and layering throughout. Just from the first listen you can already hear how much precision and time has been put into not only the writing but production of the song making each note sound its absolute best, whether this be from effects, eqing or automation the professionalism runs so clearly throughout from everyone.
The emotion felt in the raw vocal track really sets the scene of the reflection sung about in the lyrics. The vocals are so clean yet not overproduced, something I feel is quite rare in newer music as you can greatly hear the emotion in the voice and phrasings of the lyrics paying great homage to the darker themes used.
The song has a wintertime identity and has most definitely been released at the right time of year. The talent represented in the bands music is extremely impressive, especially for a fully independent band, they definitely know how to take their time and put consideration into their music.