No one else quite operates in the visionary realms of Home Counties. 

An influx of synth tribulations and zesty dance-pop melodic melodramas sees the six-piece lament at crap modern living through the only way they know how: having a blast.

Drawing from the likes of Confidence Man’s dopamine-induced live shows, straight-set ‘2000s pop to the more nuanced art-rock fancies of Talking Heads and Devo thrown in for good measure, Home Counties’ Exactly As It Seems has all the magic to firmly establish them as vital cogs in an ever-changing landscape of the weird and wonderful.

With the album dipping in to so many influences, I just had to ask post Zoom-chat what act or individual drew them in the most. Naturally, they kept it to the dance-floor: “Confidence Man were quite a big one! Especially the way we were writing this one, it was more production writing. It wasn’t sat in the practice room coming up with songs, it was like.. sat around a laptop. It was very much making like a sort of really shit house song and then chipping away at it until it becomes Home Counties. It was more a dance-y way of writing. On this album, we thought let’s do as much as that as want.”

This freedom of expression is found a-plenty across the album. The flamenco-endorsed Wild Guess or the fast electronic spark of Funk U Up come to mind. There’s moments of sheer indulgence in here, there’s also moments of utter madness, too. Let loose by the cravings of new-wave electronic oddities, it’s an album eager to please; but equally eager to keep you on your toes.

With test pressings finalised and tour dates booked, Home Counties are intent on making their claim into the writhing world of post-punk electronica. There is no better promise in delivery than on their initiation here.

“It always seemed like an inevitably we end up in Home Counties but to have it actually happened is a bit unexpected. 10 years in the making.”

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