Mystoria

The portents were there on Echo Street, the follow-up to Amplifier’s sprawling 2011 opus The Octopus. As succinct as its predecessor was labyrinthine, it was an album that cut through the layers of the group’s sound built up over time, to hit the rockist core of the Manchester group’s sonic personality. Inspired by demo cassettes taped by front man SelBalamir dating back to the late 90’s, Echo Street drew influence from the old and new, the previously-trodden and the intuitively progressive; because alongside those lost recorded relics, came a new Amplifier line-up – with former Oceansize guitarist Steve Durose and bassist Alex ‘Magnum’ Redhead joining Balamir and drummer Matt Brobin in 2011 and 2012.

“I was earnest and idealistic when I was younger but I feel more normal now and more certain that music should be about fun,” Balamir says. “So there aren’t any grand narratives – we’re not making a definitive document. It’s a summer time rock record to hopefully make people feel good when they listen to it. That’s the only intent.” An intent that’s easily surpassed by a four-piece that sound, fifteen years after their inception, like they’re just getting started again.