🎧Approved: Basht.

Dublin’s Basht. are two years into their rise and already the comparisons write themselves: Wunderhorse, Keo, Gurriers. That raw, no-nonsense strain of indie rock that knows exactly where it comes from: careening guitars, DIY zeal, punk and grunge worn openly on the sleeve. It’s a crowded space, but Basht. have something that sets them apart, a restraint that makes the moments they let go hit harder.

New track ‘Perfume’ is the proof. Produced by Ali Chant (Dry Cleaning, Perfume Genius, PJ Harvey), it opens quietly, almost patiently, all intoxicating vocals and pitch-black atmosphere, before erupting to make good on the threat of its looming atmospherics. The slow build isn’t a trick, it’s the whole point.

The subject matter is as heavy as the sound. A son watching his parents’ marriage collapse, set against the backdrop of Ireland’s history of Catholic-shaped social control, young couples pushed to the altar not out of love but out of the need to preserve respectability. 

Vocalist Jack Leavey captures it with precision: “duty could outweigh desire and a single moment could determine the course of an entire future”. It’s a lot to carry, but ‘Perfume’ carries it well.

Basht. are on the Liverpool Sound City bill. If you don’t know them yet, now’s the time.

🎧Listen to ‘Perfume’ below.