With a new album No Shouts No Calls on the way, To The East serves as an intriguing appetiser. Not that you'll find anything here particularly surprising though - To The East is essentially a continuation of the Electrelane that you know and love.
Once the bass has staked its plodding claim on proceedings, a simplistic chiming guitar leads you by the hand through a song that practically stuffs flowers in your hair. It gains and loses momentum seemingly on a whim, but you go with it, pulled in by a disarmingly hypnotic groove.
Verity Susman's layered vocals have never sounded as perfectly pitched as they swirl around your head like a blossom caught in the ebb and flow of a particularly gentle stream. At its heart To The East is pure simplicity, yet despite being understated in almost every way it still sounds ridiculously grandiose. Less, it would appear is definitely more in this instance. Thankfully we won't have to wait to hear more from Electrelane.