EP Review: ‘Accelerator’ – life speeds up for the brilliant HighSchool in this haunting epic release.

Today, the imperial HighSchool release their EP ‘Accelerator’  via [PIAS] Australia, and it fulfils all promises made by the series of singles that anticipated its release.

Based in London but coming from Naarm/Melbourne the band normally consists of brother and sister Rory and Lilli Trobbiani (related to Frank Trobbiani from The Wreckery) and Luke Scott, but Lilli sat out the recording due to study obligations in Melbourne.

‘Accelerator’ is a chilly, spacious and poised EP that reverberates with its icy guitars and dispassionate vocals. There is a dark gothic hue to every track that freezes the blood, a reverberation that echoes like a wind through a ravine. HighSchool is a band that effortlessly conjures up a haunting, striking atmosphere with genetic thread running from Velvet Underground, Joy Division and The Cure through to The Horrors, via Bauhaus.

Opening track ‘August 19′ has a ambulatory liquidity with its distant louche vocals and shining and chiming guitars, confirming their position as one of the most exciting bands sparkling in the firmament.

There is an elegant romanticism in the lyrics – poetic and studied:

The love we had back then
Back when we were friends
Borrowing your pen
The teacher made you cry
He wouldn’t shake my hand
I’m glad I met you
So glad I met you

The single is accompanied by their trademark style in videos – shaky, blurry images shot in a neon lit underground world, enigmatic and atmospheric like the music itself:

In ‘Doesn’t Matter’ HighSchool’s trade mark iced guitar sound and cool insouciance is at the fore – atmospheric and ethereal with distant observant vocals buried deep and in the distance. Throughout, the scaling melodies drift like crystalline snow throughout the shoegaze drones: epic and cinematic. The band says of the track:

‘Doesn’t Matter’ is a song about unrequited love. It’s about your beloved being unaware or uncaring of your affection and deep desire for them. It’s about longing and the places your imagination takes you when you yearn for someone.

The lyrics are filled with a yearning melancholy:

I know it’s hard to say that I’m sorry
I won’t be back till the weekend don’t worry
The sunlight hurt my eyes
You caught me by surprise

The doomed air of melancholy and darkness that permeates the song seeps into the stylish gritty video directed by Henry Gosper and self-produced by the band. They share:

The video was shot over two days at three separate locations in and around the outskirts of Melbourne. We were trying to capture a modern Southern Gothic atmosphere with an Australian flair, taking inspiration from classic Australian Gothic literature and film as well as crime stoppers adverts and the T.V. programs like Highway Patrol.

The atmospheric video with its bleak and brutal prison blues ethos captures the raw, unadulterated elements of the band’s music, a frisson of danger and moral turpitude:

‘She Took You To Narnia’. Antarctic chills pervade this gothic epistle, delivered on an electronic thrum and with the insouciance we have come to expect from this enigmatic band.

Of the process behind the new single, the band say:

A subtle influence for ‘She Took You To Narnia’ is ‘Mirror’s Image’ by The Horrors. We especially love the way it turns from being a four-to-the-floor electronic track to a more guitar-based band sound in the opening minute. We attempted to replicate this in our own way here.

The result has all the hallmarks of a goth-laced shoegaze onslaught, statuesque and posed with a celestial reverberation. It’s like the perfect soundtrack for a Nicolas Winding Refn film.

‘Heaven’s Gate’ have a heavy dreamy feel like your in a deep sleep and cannot quite open your eyes while final track ‘Mondo Cane (Redux)’ has a hyperactive jaunt that skips along on the scything guitars and pattering drums, the vocals distant and layered.

‘Accelerator’ confirms HighSchool as one of the most exciting and innovative bands emerging from Australia at the moment.

This is a tremendous EP filled with night terrors and delights. Out now through PIAS, you can download and stream here.

Feature Photograph: Hannah McKimmie

Written by Backseat Mafia