BRINGING the vibe of Malkmus over the ocean to bear on only his second single, Rob Slater, the Leeds musician who’s set up in business as Carpet, has produced a nugget of lo-fi fuzzpop that’s up there with the best of them in “Terror Tear”. Come rock out with us.
Rob, by day an engineer at Greenmount Studios, has previously contributed to Leeds and Wakefield scene acts such as the DIY Nico aesthetics of Crake, American-inclined alt.rockers The Spills and the dark insouciance of Post War Glamour Girls, only officially unveiled himself as Carpet a couple of weeks ago with the sparse yearn of “Burnt And Cold”.
And now he’s reached across to the intelligent, warm blur of Pavement for the readymade summer-evening-getting-ready anthem that “Terror Tear” deserves to be countrywide, happysad fuzz boogie, hooking you with “What I can only follow” and absolutely killin ya with that final couplet: “I promise I’ll find what I buried between us / I’m sorry that you have to dig out the pieces.”
Carpet is a place where Rob can return to the freedom, the mystery and the magic that first attracted him to recording on a four-track as a teenager, bringing the spirit of lo-fi bedroom recording into the studio along with a huge dollop of excitement and sass and tunesmithery. Rob? You we can follow.
Carpet’s “Terror Tear” is out now on digital streaming platforms; connect with Carpet at Bandcamp and on Instagram.
