A Scottish friend of mine introduced me to the band CHVRCHES a few summers back, but it was not until a few weekends ago at Firefly Music Festival, in Delaware, where I felt the true strength of their sound. The trio, comprised of Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook, and Martin Doherty, has crafted trippy but brilliant music that goes beyond their heavily synthesized rhythms. What makes these Scots stand out, both live and recorded, is that their music manages to be tangible against an electronic backdrop of beats that screams from a computer. With CHVRCHES, it seems to be all man, or in the case of Ms. Mayberry, all woman.
“Recover” was a big hit from the beginning of the year and, along with tracks from the previous year, have been remixed, twisted, and molded again and again. Still, it is the original form of CHVRCHES music that remains most impressive. The same should be expected of their newest single, “Gun,” which is from their upcoming album The Bones of What You Believe. What “Gun” seems to promise is a more psychedelic take on the electro-pop vibe that the band exudes. The video that accompanying video for the song further implies this psychedelic/out of body notion, which displays the band fading in and out of what seems to be, well, consciousness. Yet still, the artists of this music are still very present, which is essential to the unique holiness of CHVRCHES.