lobby (Lottie Pendlebury and Toby Evans-Jesra) Debut Release 'in the wall' Invokes the Anxieties of Stasis

lloydbolton52

Feb 16

London familiars Lottie Pendlebury (Goat Girl) and Toby Evans-Jesra (leather.head) offer up a grim delight; the darkest sides of both projects.

Photo: Josh Evans-Jesra | Words: Grace Marshall

It is not a particularly voluble track but the lyrics hit hard enough: "a hungry pack of dogs / all in your guts / I know because I tried it once/ there's a hole in the wall / there's a hole in the wall / it gets better every day / I don't know how long I can stay". They are matched by an equally dejected vocal timbre, which veers towards spoken word in its jadedness.

lobby's exhausted vulnerability sits amid DIY shed-jazz, and a ceaseless sad-indie guitar riff that harnesses the whole thing to an inescapable sense of resignation and loss of heart. In the last minute or so, however, leather.head's experimentation is invoked. With fiddle playing from Pendlebury and sax tones from Josh Evans-Jesra (also of leather.head), we are no longer at standstill. The track drives towards a broken crescendo… before fading back into its opening riff. It is as if to say, actually, there is no saving grace after all. It is heavy stuff, and brilliant.