On first hearing, ‘Lumbering’, a couple of weeks ago, my first reaction was “well, I wasn’t expecting that!” You can’t really hazard a guess at what a band will sound like, but here is a song for breaking out of the matrix.

The musicians, A Cause In Distress, have maybe just stepped out of a TARDIS – via 20th and 22nd century Planet Telex. This is their first release (via the ever creative Cool Thing Records) and I’m sticking with it sounding (pleasurably) unexpected.

Sci-fi pulses throb with hook line electro beats and “aliens-abducted-The-Associates” tinted drama-vox. Restless and charismatic, ‘Lumbering’, is a weird, wonderful computer data-tape feed into the medium of dance. Reconstructions of layered movements ride the rhythm. This may prompt an initial response of “what?!”– and then need to be played again.

As a new band introduction, it goes boldly. There’s a fine thread that runs between N.I.N., A Cause In Distress and fellow sound boundary (“soundary”?) pushers, Birthmarks.

Emitting atmospherics into 2020’s virtual world, A Cause In Distress looked to the horizon at New Year and arrived eight months later, beyond Earth’s mainframe into a parallel dimension which their aura befits. 

What a time to arrive (!) but they’ve crafted their development through lockdown via streams, visuals and session. Futuristic means now, and now contains moon-pop with intergalactic-choir-boy vocals and tricky disco beats. An acceleration of accomplishment for a debut.

Stream/Download ‘Lumbering’ by A Cause In Distress (out now: Cool Thing Records) 
https://smarturl.it/ACauseInDistress 

Words: Caffy St Luce