EP Review :: Breeze - Toot De La Fruit

Breeze

Toot De La Fruit

January 21 2016 (self release)

7.5/10

Words: Richard O’Hagan

We’ve been championing Birmingham’s ethereal popsters Breeze for a while now, and this EP gathers together their first three singles, throws in a couple of other tracks, and sets out to give you a taster of what the three-piece are about.

Throughout, the guitars are set to ‘chiming, 1990s indie’ mode and there’s a delicateness about Paul Baker’s voice that renders it almost feminine at times. Opener ‘Intro’ is short and almost entirely instrumental, the breathless voice that comes in towards the end being almost inaudible. The whole thing is pretty much what you’d get if you let the version of The Cure which made Disintegration produce The Cocteau Twins (or indeed, vice versa).

We have mentioned before how much we like the Harry Potter inspired ‘Luna Love Me Good’ and yet that is almost the weakest song on here, a point emphasised that it is followed by the rather excellent new number ‘Three Years’, a slow burner of a song in which the tempo and Baker’s voice gradually pick up into something reminiscent of later-era Sleeper (although presumably without the bit where you sleep with all of your bandmates).

Wisely, Breeze save the last word to one of their older songs, ‘Bleach’, which not only has a sweeping melody to leave you in a relaxed and happy place, but which crowns the whole record with the “It’s a shame on me” refrain.

Really, though, there’s no shame at all here. This is a melodic treat guaranteed to warm a cold winter evening.