Hailing from that village down the road, Rowhedge, it’s been incredible to see Anorak Patch just rise exponentially over the last few years. They’ve got the right people’s attention, appearing on countless national “Bands to watch out for” lists in the last year. It’s for good reason too – the music they’re putting out is well written, well produced and polished to perfection. By Cousin Sam is the most recent release by the band, a six (or seven if you include the intro) track EP and, dare I say it, their best output to date.

Opening with Cousin Sam, the track spins slowly to life, the minor guitar part crunching over a sea of synths, harmonics and reverb soaked horns, bringing the EP to a dark introduction. The vocals are perfectly nestled into the cacophony of sound in the verse before being given a bit more room to breath at the mid-point. The wall of sound in the middle is pretty phenomenal too, like something out of a post-rock song contrasting against the vocals.

The guitar part in Paris Will Be Paid For is incredible – the timing of each note is interesting especially with the drums underneath. The whole track twists and turns perfectly, each section adding something wonderful to the track. The increasing vocal run after the chorus is pretty majestic but it’s then followed by something that wouldn’t have been amiss in an old school Biffy track.

Delilah has been around for a little while now but it’s still catchy as hell – the chorus hook is just great. Blue Jeans start out like Radiohead’s National Anthem, the bass line and the drums just driving the song forward and letting the guitar ring out over the top. It eventually changes pace, the drums really picking up pace while a synth gets added to the mix. The contrasting vocals work well together, the more spoken style of Luca against the melodic delivery from Efi (I’m guessing who’s doing vocals here, but certainly that’s how it sounds). Polly Filler is an odd track, at times more atonal than what came before. Sludgy guitars and an intricate bass line, the spoken “Don’t open the door” line creates something a bit different to the preceeding tracks. It rounds off the EP in a noisy dissonant style.

It’s easy to say (and I’ve definitely done it before) that Anorak Patch are incredible for their age but, frankly, there aren’t many bands of any age putting out music this interesting, this intricate and with so many elements that make you listen multiple times to hear every detail. What Anorak Patch have created here is on a different level to most bands are putting out. Even in places where you can hear the influences they’ll suddenly push the song in a different direction. The production by Tom Donovan is great here too – the final polish to some incredible musicianship. Incredible stuff. Really, really, incredible stuff.