The new album from Glasgow-based band Nightshift, Zöe, dropped on Trouble in Mind Records yesterday and it offers up a nice mix of post-punk and DIY indie. The material here is engaging, and the band has an easy way with these compositions.
"Piece Together" is low key, down-tempo stuff, while "Spray Paint the Bridge" is more compelling, flashes of jazz in this one, and hints of earlier punk pioneers in the lopsided grooves. Elsewhere, "Make Kin" jumbles up riffs and rhythms that wouldn't have sounded out of place on a Raincoats record, with vocals that are wordy and insistent. The best thing here, however, is the longer "Power Cut", with its bright passages that alternate with darker undercurrents. There is, throughout Zöe, a cleverness, and an intellectual spark that keeps the whole enterprise moving forward, such that Nightshift never let things get too heavy, even as they pursue something more than just the routine kind of indie.
Zöe is out now on Trouble in Mind Records.
[Photo: Trouble in Mind Records]