Island of Love Weave Pop Tones into the Grungy Fabric of Their Song-writing on Latest Single 'Fed Rock'

 

Photography: unknown

Island of Love are quickly becoming something of an enigma within the underground circuit. Though only existing on major music platforms for some two years, the four-piece have already displayed their eclectic range of style that they explore within the boundaries of their simplistic guitar-bass-drums structure. 2022 hit ‘Head Case’ oozes with the sludgy teenage angst of a Sonic Youth track, fashionably reviving the trashy DIY sound so popularized by such nineties acts. With its stylishly raw, clumsy opening sequence leading the song from solitary guitar into a beautifully melodic raucous, it's no wonder that the track was recently used over an online campaign for fashion brand Dsquared.


 The quartet delved into even murkier garage-rock territory with their previous effort in the form of album ‘Promo Tape’, a mush of six string fuzz, murky feedback and trashy noise-rock. The poor quality of the recordings that make up Island of Love’s debut exemplify the band’s carefree approach to on-the-spot, jam-oriented composure and overall tightness, or lack thereof; if the melody and feel is there in the songwriting, then the songs have just as much potential to render success than anything else out there, even if they have been recorded with one room mic.


Curveball project ‘Planet of Hate’ was released earlier this year, a cassette-only EP consisting of six tracks described by the four as “the most tortured, horrendous and sinful sludge, d-beat and black metal from the twisted minds of those nice boys that usually just play love songs”. An apt illustration of the drastically faster, heavier and even fuzzier body of work than their last. Island of Love’s genre-adaptability is quintessential to their skillset as musicians, moving from lazy romance songs to contorted doom-rock in a heartbeat. The band grew up listening to the likes of Slayer and Napalm Death according to So Young Magazine, which is crystal clear on ‘Planet of Hate’, but harder to detect in the majority of their grungy, electric ballads of adolescent love and nostalgia. 


Latest three sided single ‘Fed Rock’ continues to explore the twisted avenues of Island of Love’s influences, continuing to adopt the reliable pop tones of previous single ‘Grow/Blues 2000’. Dinosaur Jr instantly comes to mind on this effort, woven in between the typically British fabric of the track - choppy guitar harmonics accompany a straight, open-hi-hat 4/4 drum beat and driven barre chords reminiscent of Ash, or at times the Libertines. As ever though, the quartet’s American alt-rock influences are prominent, especially on previously mentioned tracks Grow and Blues 2000, which follow ‘Fed Rock’ respectively. As Swervedriver and Feeder did two to three decades ago, IOL instinctively merge the sounds of classic punk, pop and indie with the typically pop-punk and grunge tones of our trans-Atlantic cousins. Their appeal has only grown stronger with the arrival of the group’s more radio-friendly, harmonious sound which further showcase’s the band’s sonic flexibility, attracting a wider array of listeners, from lo-fi enjoyers to sludge-metal fanatics and everything in between. Island of Love’s recent popularity and steady stream of material signifies the release of something bigger, which begs to ask which stylistic tendencies the band will favor on their next project.



Fed Rock by Island of Love is now available to stream on all major music platforms.



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