Matthew & Me

While there’s something very familiar and approachable about Matthew & Me’s sound, delve a little deeper and there’s also something pretty unique. There are so many bands at the moment trying to replicate the indie rock success of Foals, the intimate alt-folk of Daughters, or the sonic transcendence of post-rock giants Sigur Ros, but I can’t think of many bands, other than Matthew & Me, who try to pull all of those strands together. At once intimate and ethereal, atmospheric and catchy, Matthew & Me somehow manage to sound both quiet and loud at the same time. “Like an Escher print turned into a pop song, ” as one critic described them “ — a beautiful, seemingly impossible contraption.” This is shown most clearly in their track Joy: a song which builds, crashes, and subsides like a wave in slow motion, medleying together beautiful atmospheric soundscapes, fuzzy climactic guitar crescendoes, and clear penetrating falsetto vocals.

The band also have a thing for playing in strange venues. In the past couple of years they’ve performed shows in an Elizabethan greenhouse, a Dutch barge, a vineyard, even a nursery school. While the Barrel House in Totnes isn’t quite that out there, it’s still one of the most quaint, intimate venues in the South West: a perfect environment to let Matthew & Me’s waves of sound wash over you.