Patterns

Patterns extract the walls of dissonance of bands like The Jesus & Mary Chain or My Bloody Valentine and soften the edges. Using electronics and hushed reverb and delay, they aim towards the otherworldly, putting their vocals to the forefront to create a real emotional core. Speaking about the aforementioned 80s influences, McAuley explains that Patterns “never wanted to be a rock band in the same way that those guys were” making “music that’s somewhere between drone and pop, almost like it’s stretched in two different directions.

The sound of 80s shoegaze and noise pop isn’t the only influence on the band’s sound, they lend freely from the Flying Lotus or Brainfeeder school of electronica, as well as the warped pop of Gold Panda. Using Ableton Live, an SP 404 sampler, a Microkorg XL and a host of plugins, Patterns refuse to be one of those bands that record themselves ‘live in studio’, instead opting to mess with their sounds in the trend of many a bedroom artist. Finding ideas in the surreal cinema of Luis Buñuel, the philosophy of Jacques Derrida and the writings of Franz Kafka and Milan Kundera, it becomes clear the band find influence across a myriad of distinct outlets.

In a world focused on image and attention seeking, Patterns are a breath of fresh air that recall the days when new music and sounds were discovered through exploration, when gems were discovered live, hidden away in metropolitan backwaters or isolated rural territories.