High Vis : Guided Tour
High Vis put into practice better than most the idea that hardcore and post-punk both extend from the same central point. Drawing more explicitly from their hardcore backgrounds on their 2022 sophomore album Blending, following a somewhat more dour debut, the London group revved up their engine while adorning it with gossamer filigree, wrapping their furious core in brighter elements of shoegazey guitar and Britpop hooks. For all the musical muscle the group flexed, vocalist Graham Sayle often focused on a message resonating with positivity, straightforwardly dismantling ideas of self-destructive behavior and toxic masculinity. But no matter how jangly the leads or inspiring the affirmations, the fiery energy of their live show served as a raucous reminder that High Vis are, at heart, a punk band.
Two years down the line on third album Guided Tour, High Vis have evolved further along that same continuum, polishing their guitars to a pristine shimmer and honing their hooks to pop perfection. From the opening of the title track, it’s immediately apparent how far they’ve traveled, not surging to life with a distorted roar but a tuneful jangle and a deep bass groove, drawing even more heavily from the influence of bands like The Stone Roses as Sayle delivers an inspiring lyrical olive branch: “If you need a light, I’ll be your guide.”
The grit of their pit-ready punk raveups hasn’t softened any, and in moments like the roaring “Drop Me Out” and the furious “Mob DLA,” with riffs that occasionally recall the early psych-metal of Baroness, High Vis remain as battle-ready as ever. In the latter standout in particular, Sayle emphasizes the necessity of taking hold of one’s own destiny in a way that reaffirms his status as punk’s best motivational speaker: “Somewhere in between our hope and fate/Nothing ever comes to those who wait.” Yet with the aggression dialed back, High Vis allow more space for the nuances of their songwriting to shine, whether through the arpeggiated twinkle of “Worth the Wait” or the sparser, bass-heavy “Untethered.”
Deep into Guided Tour‘s second side, however, High Vis draw a wild card with “Mind’s a Lie,” a pulsing electronic track with no obvious precursor in the band’s catalog. It’s driven by a thick synth bassline and wrapped in the kind of chopped-up vocal samples you’d expect to hear in a Caribou or Four Tet song rather than from a post-punk band with hardcore bonafides, but the group stick the landing nonetheless, in the process redrawing the line between acid house and indie rock. But High Vis are at their best when all of their disparate if complementary qualities come together most seamlessly, as on closer “Gone Forever,” a driving post-punk anthem with Joy Division’s taut rhythmic sensibility but less of the gloom. Quite the contrary—Sayle’s at his most pointed and driven, lyrically, trading a sensitive ear for a mouth for war: “Prepared for peace and ready for war/Take what you need if you can’t take anymore.” High Vis embrace a subtler approach on Guided Tour, perhaps, but there’s still plenty of fight in them yet.
Label: Dais
Year: 2024
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High Vis : Guided Tour
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Jeff Terich is the founder and editor of Treble. He's been writing about music for 20 years and has been published at American Songwriter, Bandcamp Daily, Reverb, Spin, Stereogum, uDiscoverMusic, VinylMePlease and some others that he's forgetting right now. He's still not tired of it.