In case you haven’t heard already, Palace are the next big thing. Friends who met at school, they are Rupert Turner, Will Rhodes, Leo Wyndham & Matt Hodges. They’ve been friends for years, having all grown up together in the South of England, but only began playing music together around 3 years ago. Since then they’ve been tipped as Rising Stars of the Year by NME, been handpicked by Jamie T to support on his comeback tour and released their debut EP, Lost in The Night, on Beatnik Creative.
Palace self-produced the EP after recording it at a their live-in studio/squat in North London, which sounds like the perfect way to write a record as considered as this one. They recently described their sound (in a very tongue-in-cheek way) as “Alternative Blues Space Rock”, which kind of sounds like a scrapped Bowie side-project, but I’d describe it as blues-infused indie.
Title track, Lost in The Night, is stripped back and soulful. Opening with just an acoustic guitar and minimal percussion, it leaves the listener plenty of room to get lost in Leo Wyndham’s rich vocals, which are completely enchanting here, and throughout the record. Dripping with melancholy, I Want What You Got, is a beguiling track, it’s driving groove almost hypnotic when paired with Wyndham’s arresting voice. Veins is probably the best track on the record, it showcases Palace’s ability to write songs which make your spine tingle, and though it’s easy to just focus on the magical vocals, don’t overlook lead guitarist Rupert Turner’s ability to bust out a pretty nifty solo. Bitter sounds like it could have been written by The Maccabees had they listened to more Jeff Buckley and it’s crescendo is as satisfying as any on Given to The Wild.
Palace have cited Wu Lyf as one of their biggest influences, and you can hear it on this EP. Both bands create ( or created – past tense – unfortunately, in the case of Wu Lyf) ambient and atmospheric music and utilise unique vocals to great effect, but where Wu Lyf were the musical equivalent of eyeballing shots of vodka, Palace sound more like a fine whisky; warm and rich.
Palace have released a considered and well-honed EP here, probably one of the releases of the year. For a début effort it is incredibly impressive and would certainly suggest that the hype, which has surrounded them since some nosy passer-by pressed an ear to the door of their rehearsal space and booked them for their first gig, is completely justified.
