The Breakdown
North Wales-based quartet Worldcub shines on their new album ‘Back To The Beginning,’ a colorful psychedelic journey through spacious reverbs and ethereal melodies. Led by brothers Cynyr (guitar & vocals) and Dion Hamer (drums & vocals), the 14-track release offers a rich kaleidoscope of carefully crafted soundscapes, packed with radiant creative ideas.
Opening with the title track ‘Back To The Beginning,’ the album wastes no time introducing the quirky, rich, spacey guitar licks, splashes of keyboards, floating harmonies, and vocal interplay that characterize their sound. Delivering beach-indie undertones with its buoyant, light melodies, the track moves through its floating verse to a tight and chantable, yet still restrained and tasteful, chorus line, adding an unexpectedly catchy edge to the track.
Elsewhere on the album, the new single ‘Grog’ brings tightly layered, picked, and repeated guitar notes, Latin-influenced, percussion-heavy drums, and splashes of synth that pull the track forward to an abrupt stop at its close. ‘One Small Mistake’ offers almost Motown-esque melodies, while the picked acoustic guitars and boxy synthscape of ‘Birdy’ bring a different dimension to the band’s sound.
Other highlights from the album, ‘Hel y Hadau’ and ‘Pwysau Yn Pwyso (A Pressing Matter),’ both sung in Welsh, showcase the band’s brilliant ability to create an intricate, deep blend of organic guitars, bass, and drums with sprawling synths. Carrying an alternative experimental aura while retaining a catchy, accessible edge through the understated yet melodic vocal lines, the band balances their sound well, slipping comfortably between shoegaze and jangly psychedelic-rock.
Closing with the warming acoustic tones of ‘Endings,’ the analogue nature of the band’s sound is highlighted once more as they end the album with a warming, relaxed folk-tinted flourish.
An album that showcases a band who knows their sound and musical identity very well, ‘Back To The Beginning’ carries a cohesive full-band sound, soaked in cavernous reverbs and moving between moments of gentle bliss and others of swirling, otherworldly atmosphere. Carrying a warming 70’s influence whilst fitting into a contemporary and rising psychedelic space. Although the band’s alternative and ethereal approach isn’t for everyone, the album delivers a vibrant array of ideas and some surprisingly catchy melodies that make it thoroughly enjoyable and, at times, spellbindingly captivating and almost hypnotic.
Listen below:
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