It takes just one play of Brighton outfit Gaps’ debut drop, “Belong”, to understand why the almost permanently divided British blogosphere has been unanimous in its approval of the previously unheard of bedroom recording project.
Created using a delicate mix of laptops, guitar and red wine, “Belong” is rare gem, an intoxicatingly heady instalment of deeply moving pop music. Heartbeat piano plinks and shimmering cymbals glint in the otherwise impermeable darkness but it’s the ghostly recitation of “where I go I will belong/where I go I will belong to you” that truly envelopes you into Gaps’ world of sleepless, angst filled nights. A week after lighting up the Internet for the first time; the mysterious collective leaked another melancholy masterpiece in the form of “When I’m Gone”, a track which resonates with distant industrial percussion before bubbling away to a climax of disorientating but oh so moreish bass ripples.
After sampling these two and accompanying tracks, “Cascade” and “The Void”, their world of sweet discord is a place we don’t ever want to leave.