PREMIERE: Slowcoach – ‘Beneath the Board’

‘Beneath the Board’ is the debut single from Melbourne dude Dean Valentino, aka Slowcoach. Despite never having heard this before, I feel like he could be an old friend. That’s the kind of track this is: warm, assuring, forward-looking without leaving you behind. It’s confident and solid, and at every point where Valentino could have slackened off and let ‘Beneath the Board’ drip into the abyss of toothless indie rock he revs up, adding a bass lick here, a twanging guitar there, and piercing synth punctuating it all.

By three listens in I was spinning around the room SO SURE that someone was whispering to me, but that turned out to be one of the track’s many neat layers (production help from Michael Belsar of Melbourne calypso rockers Twinsy), that by chance put the fear of God in me…and made me listen to the song another three times to make sure I wasn’t going batshit (1.27 guys, promise it’s real). Such is the effort Valentino has gone to to produce a track that leaves no melodic lead or dreamy production trick unturned.

Attention must be turned to Valentino’s voice, because after I recovered from my ghost scare/religious epiphany I could have sworn that was Band of Horses’ Ben Bridwell walloping me with his restrained power ballad vocals. Pair that with a War on Drugs rhythm wall and Slowcoach have put together a really fun, effortless sounding track.

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