A few months ago I wrote a “narrow-minded… rant” about the emerging B-Town indie scene (thanks to Greg on the comments for the quote- he was rather accurate, to be fair). In it I mentioned a band called Superfood who had only released one self-titled song, but looked to be the biggest and best thing to come out of this fractured scene. In the accompanying print edition, there was a picture captioned “Superfood”, which was not a picture of Superfood. It was just three random skinny blokes standing by a wall. Of course no-one noticed the difference (it was uncanny!), but I feel that by way of apology I am obliged to review the band’s debut release, Mam EP.
Not that I need much encouragement. Mam EP is four songs’ worth of catchy hooks and funky beats, with the obligatory B-Town reverbs and noises sprinkled over the top. It’s singable, danceable, and stubbornly joyful. Not even the most cynical indie-snobs could listen to this EP without finding something to love (and I should know, being one of them myself).
The term “90’s-influenced” is being thrown about a lot in the indie music world at the moment. Nostalgia seems to have a twenty-year delay, and the ironic synth-pop throwbacks of the 00’s are starting to give way to curtain-fringed shoegazers and grungesters. Superfood are both of this trend and removed from it. Their sound is most easily classified as Britpop, and seems especially Blur-influenced. Singer Dom Ganderton has claimed in various interviews that sounding like the 90’s is not their aim, and will be less obvious on their upcoming album. However, if they’re trying to distance themselves from the current nostalgia, they aren’t really helping themselves: the video for “Melting” very proudly states at the beginning that it was shot on 16mm DV tape, their Facebook pictures are Instagrammed up to the eyeballs to look like polaroids, and their website is, er… Ceefax. Yes. Ceefax is now a cool thing. Vintage, man, when there used to be, like, words on television.
Nevertheless, it’s unfair to criticise that sort of thing too much. The music itself might have features of 90’s Britpop, but generally Superfood have created their own sound which defies harsh criticism or tight categorisation. This is why amateur reviewers like me have to fill up page space talking about Ceefax. Which according to Wikipedia was the world’s first teletext service, and was up and running from 23rd September 1974 to 23rd October 2012. Wow. Isn’t that interesting? Maybe I can squeeze 50 more words out of that. Ok, sorry, I’ll stop now. 500 words is a lot, y’know.
They are currently supporting We Are Scientists on a nationwide tour. With any luck, after Superfood release the album to follow up Mam EP, We Are Scientists will be merely a small dot in Superfood’s rearview mirror as they are catapulted to bigger and better things.
Brace yourself. The hype is coming.