New single from The Vryll Society is exactly what the indie scene needs.

 

The indie scene has been stagnating in recent years. There’s been a lot of indie-inclined wolves that have caught the scent of a successful formula (of treble-heavy, jangly guitar tones with a dreamlike echo) and have done it to death, making it consistently less appealing in the process. And, with that, the scene feels like it’s either eternally chasing its tail if it’s not in a perpetually downward spiral.

But every time a genre stagnates, an act emerges that has the power to change that and move the conversation forward. The Vryll Society are 2016’s answer to the question of “what can be done to resurrect indie?”

The outfit’s new single A Perfect Rhythm embodies a spirit of a genre that will not die. It has the hallmarks of the indie tradition, with drawn-out reverberations of dreamy guitar lines, but it also adds something a little different into the mix. And, as the name suggests, that is the rhythm section. Instead of going all out for urgency, it tumbles around in a joyful stupor while oddly-ethnic instrumentation embellishes occasional melodies. The end result is a surprisingly coherent song that is the most exciting guitar-driven indie music has been since the rise of The Stone Roses more than two decades ago.

If there is a hope for indie, it is The Vryll Society.