HAVING signed for the British indie Dalliance last autumn – and you can really see why those particular talent-spotters, Rich and Matt, were so eager to get them under their wing – Melbourne’s HighSchool have just released their first single of the year, “De facto” which comes armed with a self-directed video; you can watch that below.
They’ve got the musical chops to take on the big themes, cloak them in a particular indie confection that has one eye on a backlit dancefloor in a basement: the illusion of love as seen through moments of ritual, marriage, persecution and death. Born eat die.
Musically, it steps on from October’s jangly cracker “New York, Paris and London”, which we noted for the record as being “a cracker from the Southern Hemisphere in the slightly unpolished, skeletal post-punk guitar groove meets janglepop of The Chills, The Verlaines, et al.”
It has the wiry energy of that lineage of early New Order, Joy Division, Seventeen Seconds-era The Cure; life dark and austere, but conscious for the need for the absolute catharsis of melody and dancing in your DMs.
Guitars chop and chime with stark energy, any cushioning from the black-rose sweetness of that keyboard figure.
The band – Lilli and Rory Trobbianni and Luke Scott – say of “De facto”: “We created [the track] to shed a mortal light on love. It presents relationships as being temporary and expected.”
The band are currently putting the final touches to their debut EP, which is due to arrive in the summer.
You can follow HighSchool on Facebook and Instagram.
