Cruush

New Bangers - NME | On Repeat - The Line of Best Fit 

“sure to have fans foaming at the mouth for a full-length project” Consequence

“heady pop inflected shoegaze” CLASH | “instantly intoxicating” GIGWISE

"If you can imagine the marvel child between Wolf Alice and Portishead, this shoegaze ensemble would be your result" So Young Magazine

Manchester shoegaze risers cruush release debut EP Wishful Thinker today via Heist or Hit (Her’s, Eades, two blinks, i love you). 

“I guess you can say our music has the sweet elements of having a crush on someone but the screeching of an industrial car crusher” goes the droll mantra from cruush vocalist & front-person Amber Warren.

Teaming up with tastemaker label, and fellow Mancunians, Heist or Hit - responsible for launching the careers of Her’s, pizzagirl, Eades and more - offers cruush the chance to spread this message far and wide. 

Meeting at a “shitty Fresher’s event” Amber and guitarist Arthur Boyd formed a connection, and began to jam the early tunes that would serve as a helix for the band’s genetic information. Joined by drummer Fotis Kalantzis – initially not invited because Amber “wanted drums ‘like Bon Iver’” – and later by bassist Ru Cowl, they set about repackaging shoegaze’s secret blend of verbs-in-crisis to reflect modern sensibilities. The result is shoegaze by digital natives, a generation for whom pluralism is commonplace. cruush are therefore half memory and half anticipation; pulling at the grandeur of the genre they love, while lacing the punch with a contemporary aesthetic. Think the delicacy of Wolf Alice whipped in the cyclonic guitars of My Bloody Valentine.  

The stemming watercolour flowstate of guitar is met by mournful utterances on toxicity, physiological decline, Narcissistic behaviours and pessimistic tendencies. Light is shone on these subjects as well. While more traditional approaches to shoegaze suffocate the vocal and message, Amber’s melodic splendour is antidote-like, stealing attention from the tidal waves of noise with queasy timbres of disillusion, doubt and confusion.  

The pre-release tasters taken from the EP introduced this clarity-at-the-eye-of-the-tempest fusion of wild sonics and precise vocals and lyricism. They are standalone totems that together become a stone-circle honouring the bands’ hazy genesis - check out ‘Sombre By The Weekend’, ‘Stick In The Mud’ and ‘Features’. 

“Meeting each other in Manchester and sharing our time here has shaped our sound more than anything else” explains Arthur. So, no matter if cruush lean into 80s indie, alternative 90s or the Seattle sound, they’re able to plug their rock into the aquatic textures of the city in which they reside.  

Broadcasters and journalists alike have been enchanted, with Jack Saunders (BBC Radio 1), Steve Lamacq, Tom Robinson & Chris Hawkins (BBC Radio 6), John Kennedy (Radio X), Simone Butler (Soho Radio), Consequence of Sound, Bandcamp Daily, NME, CLASH, So Young and GIGWISE all lining up to call themselves fans. 

On the live side, cruush have bagged supports with BDRMM, NewDad, The Lounge Society, Far Caspian, Pale Blue Eyes, Priestgate and Ian Sweet, while selling out hometown headline dates at Gullivers & YES.  

Wishful Thinker - the debut EP from cruush - is out now via Heist or Hit