East London 7-piece psych-pop collective This Is The Deep today release their debut EP ‘The Best Is Yet To Come (Part 1)’ — out now via B3SCI Records, with new track “Let Her Go” also out now.
Over the last two years, This Is The Deep have quietly established a cult live following through support slots with HMLTD, PVA, and Family Time, as well as their own sold-out cross-over events at venues such as Windmill Brixton, Moth Club and The Shacklewell Arms, combining immersive art and video installations with live performances from acts including Sinead O’Brien, Opus Kink and Baby Vanga.
Written, recorded and produced by the band at ‘The Sauna’ – their HQ in Hackney Wick – the EP is a wildly inventive introduction to the band. Across its 8 tracks, the band switch seamlessly between explorative psych-rock, glitchy art-pop and stomping indie rock.
What started out as late-night recording sessions between flatmates Ranald Macdonald, David Bardon and Oscar Robertson – quickly spiralled into This Is The Deep’s carnivalesque troupe of seven musicians.
Drawing as much from artists such as Suicide, Death Grips, and the scores of Angelo Badalamenti (Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet) and Ennio Morricone, as from the glittery pop-disco of the Scissor Sisters, This Is The Deep weave together personal stories with wider ideas and anxieties about the times we’re living through – from the loss of ‘real’ experiences to the feeling of being constantly watched by technology.
“Ultimately, we want to transport the listener somewhere completely different with the music. A landscape that can offer a different perspective on the real world or a just place to enjoy and escape from it,” the band explain. “To us, The Best Is Yet To Come (Part 1) isn’t saying that everything is getting better. It’s about feeling that things today aren’t ‘The Best’ and although you can’t say exactly what it will look like, hoping that one day something better will come.”
This Is The Deep consists of post-punk royalty Susie Honeyman (Mekons) on fiddle, Sammy Silue on guitar and vocals, Ranald Macdonald on synth and vocals, Hannah Tilson on trombone and vocals, David Bardon and Oscar Robertson on bass and drums, with electronic drums and percussion from Liam Toon.