There’s a beauty in chaotic music. Sure, it isn’t for everyone, and if left to the wrong hands, it can just sound like a musical mistake. However, when the chaos is honed just right, when the instrumentation and lyrics collide like atoms in a super-collider, something violent yet mesmerising is born. That’s what Tether, one of the most exciting bands in London’s bulging post hardcore scene sound like, the kind of music born from the back rooms of bars that ends up spilling pints and claret all over well-trodden floorboards, but in the way that makes those nights of danger some of the best of your life.
Formed in 2018 but having their momentum curbed by COVID, Tether are a mixed bag of emotions, mixing eye-to-eye level intensity and unease with cathartic, emotive soul searching. Take frontman Justin Jackson; not only does he possess an energy and spark potent enough to stir up the sleepiest venues across the world, his lyrics depict a man looking for his place in life. Whether that be personal relationships, life in a band or the state of the world, his heart is poured out on the page in a style that’s part Frank Carter, part Keith Buckley and there’s a healthy dollop of Jason Aalon Butler in there too. Whether it’s soaring choruses and insidious earworms or commanding, goosebump-inducing growls, the man can do it all like pretty much nobody else at the moment.
A quick word for the artwork, which weirdly gives off early-noughties vibes, but in the way that people were still learning to do graphic design and tried to recreate the mirror scene from the first Matrix movie. This isn’t a slight, it’s actually really cool, though if you’re judging a book by it’s cover (Which is bad, don’t do it) it won’t sell you that this is a post-hardcore record. That’s where the music does it’s job, and as soon as “Hollywood Trauma” cascades into your ears, it immediately commands your attention. After resisting the urge to start a moshpit in the your office, you’ll have the hook stuck in your head for days and that’s just in the first minute of the track. You can dance to this as much as you can throw fists, such is the blend of almost swing-drum beats and crushing breakdowns.
‘Meet Me Where The Sun Touches The Sea’ is a song that once heard, will refuse to leave your skull. The most dynamic, extreme blend of the almost soul choruses and pummelling, crushing beatdowns giving you a case of whiplash (In a good way) that would qualify you for a sick note. The track is the undisputed highlight of the record, it possesses a feeling, an aura to it that suggests that Tether are merely on the first step of a journey. The whole record has a semblance of that indescribable quality, something you can’t quite identify but you know it’s not something you hear that often. If you’ve been missing Letlive…then Tether won’t just become a band-aid, they have the potential to become your new favourite band. It’s obviously early days and there’s parts of this EP that sometimes feel a bit like a delicious smoothie with the seeds and stems left in, showing perhaps a stronger hand needed on refinement.
Tether have to be one of the names on the list of the most exciting bands of 2024, there’s no doubt about it. If you give them a chance, you’ll be rewarded with what may be one of the best EPs of 2024 also, come the end of the year. If the band can hone the parts of their sound that they feel most comfortable with, sand down the edges and hone their electric presence on the live circuit, their limit is scary to comprehend.