Latest Wichita Recordings signings, Cheatahs, are set to release a compilation of their two 2012 Eps. Previously only available on 12” and download, the set brings together the eight songs on CD for the first time ever.
Wichita released the SANS EP on vinyl in the UK in November. An electrifying blend of raucous guitars and breathy vocals, honey-dripped with ennui and emotion, The Fly magazine awarded it a full 5 stars and hailed lead track, “The Swan” as “2012's most addicitve guitar song”, whilst calling the EP “a heads-spinning reminder of the raw power of guitar strings and vocals chords”. Whilst the Louder Than War website called it “an excellent, excellent record...one of my favourite records of the year...”
Previously released on vinyl in the UK by the Marshall Teller label (History Of Apple Pie, Warm Brains etc), the four songs of the Coared EP have been remixed by the band so appear here in new forms, sounding better than ever. Upon the original release of this EP, the NME declared that “by pushing the hooks and melodies to the fore and not just relying on the “sound”, this new quartet are elevating themselves to being one of the best”.
Both EPs were recorded in London by their bassplayer, Dean Reid, and mixed by Dean and the rest of the band.
Wichita's first attraction to the band was how they reminded them of so many of their favourite bands from their Creation Records days - Swervedriver's hi-octane, desert-dusted, road-trip tales, the weight of My Bloody Valentine's two classic albums, the pop-tinged psychedelia of The Boo Radleys circa Everything's Alright Forever and their Every Heaven EP (not to mention Teenage Fanclub, Sugar, Dinosaur Jr and many others)… so it's hard to argue when the band gets grouped in with the recent crop of bands from the UK and US bringing back the 90s sounds of shoegaze and grunge.
Though based in East London, the band are about as international as a four-piece can be: James Wignall (guitar, vocals) is English, Dean (bass and vocals) is American, Marc Raue (drums) is German and Nathan Hewitt (vocals, guitar) was raised in tiny Morinville, a town near Edmonton, Canada, which he left in 2003 (“I don’t think I could ever live in a place that had snow around for half the year ever again,” he says).
Their music tastes are almost as scattered as their geography – everything from Nirvana and Kevin Shields to Neil Young and Mark Kozalek inspires their sound, they claim, while they’ve slotted in neatly on bills with the likes of The Cribs, Cloud Nothings, Ariel Pink, King Tuff and Best Coast.
With this new release, in their new homestead at Wichita, the feeling is soon they’ll be the ones inspiring others.