Culture

NEET Recordings
4/5

After gaining some serious indie hype late last year with their bedroom-recorded demos, noise pop duo Sleigh Bells has finally delivered with debut effort Treats. Comprising short, well-written pop drenched in boom box distortion, Treats proves to be an exciting and genre-bending mix of indie rock and adrenaline-inducing hip hop beats.
Beginning with the machine gun clap of lead single ‘Tell ‘Em’, guitarist Derek Miller’s stadium-sized guitar soars over the sound of boom boxes about to explode. Contrasted with a sweet harmonised melody, courtesy of the group’s vocalist Alexis Krauss, ‘Tell ‘Em’ serves both as a sonic template and a devastatingly précis opener. The album’s centerpiece, ‘Infinity Guitars’, builds via a garage rock intro to a vicious end-of-the-world climax, with its punishing beat pushing speakers to breaking point.
Here, just as their simple formula begins to sound familiar, Sleigh Bells throws a healthy change into the mix. The beautifully forlorn electro-pop of ‘Rachel’, with its tale of unfulfilled desire, provides emotional depth and a refreshing respite from the cheerleader chants of the previous numbers, giving Krauss the opportunity to explore her vocal range. Following with the brilliant post-surf of ‘Rill Rill’, the pair dispels any belief of Sleigh Bells as beat merchants alone.
Easily imaginable in the club, or on the couch, ‘Treats’ is one of the year’s most interesting debuts, its eclectic mix of genre certain to appeal to most.