Despite the song’s decidedly odd song structure (something which Wu, formerly of Leeds math-rock types This Et Al, is an old hand at), Waterhole, while a fantastic song in its own right, works extremely well as a single. It opens with one of the most exuberant vocal hooks I’ve heard all year, before exploding into life for a full-on verse, and THEN almost collapsing in on itself as the song’s swallowed up in spine-tingling noise. The hook reappears, though (serving as the song’s chorus as well – how’s that for versatility?), before things are taken in an entirely different direction, with Wu repeating ‘to the waterhole’ over a nice juxtaposition of a simple piano line and some complex guitar work. It gets a lot done in under four minutes, and is the perfect primer for next year’s debut, Specters.

It’s hard to believe it’s been four-and-a-half years since Wu was involved in any sort of album (and on that note, Baby Machine is a criminally-underrated record), but when the Stalking Horse (facebook/twitter) project really gets going, it’ll be a great reminder of what we’ve missed. It’s probable that the album will be an entirely different beast to anything This Et Al put out, but on this evidence, it could also be just as good.

Waterhole by Stalking Horse
Broken Brain by Stalking Horse