The Wytches

Sometimes you have to take a step back to move forward. That is exactly what The Wytches have done with Talking Machine, the fifth studio album by the Brighton band – and in more than one respect.

Even the album's title was inspired by a book about Thomas Edison, who once called gramophones "Talking Machines". But the music itself also deliberately looks back. Since their formation in Peterborough in 2011, The Wytches – today made up of Kristian Bell (vocals/guitar), Daniel Rumsey (bass), Mark Breed (keyboards/guitar) and Bhav Thaker (drums) – have always had something timeless about them. For this album, however, there was a clear aim: to conjure up the sounds and influences of the past anew.

The opening title track, a driving mix of surf and garage rock, opens a portal to an earlier, more innocent era of rock ’n’ roll – a time when bands recorded their albums together in one room. No wonder, then, that Talking Machine – for the first time since the debut Annabel Dream Reader (2014) – was recorded in exactly this way. The album, produced by the band itself and recorded by Luke Oldfield, relies uncompromisingly on analogue techniques and captures The Wytches in all their raw, unfiltered energy. This creates a palpable purity – a very human one.