As rave culture reached its peak and Brit-pop conquered the world, Harrison Koisser, Samuel Koisser, Douglas Castle and Dominic Boyce were born in the West Midlands of England. Drawn together through the most ordinary circumstances (two are brothers and they went to the same college) they eventually began to make extra-ordinary music in late 2010. Since then they have existed as Peace, a band who are tipped to lead the way for an exciting new generation of British guitar music. The task of defining Peace’s sound has provided no end of difficulty for critics in the wake of their recent rise in popularity. The buzz generated around their demo ‘BBlood’ garnered a string of comparisons to various contemporaries and the genres of Math Rock and Afropop, which seem to have been applied to many bands across the last few years. The band’s live performances added further confusion to all this when audiences were suddenly faced with elements of dance music, walls of noise and the pop appeal that attracted fans to them in the first place. This culminated in the Fly’s recent comment that their sound is “pretty intangible”: perhaps the most appropriate response thus far. This dynamic in their music results from teenage forays into experimental music, an intelligent approach to genre-referencing and endless partying across the UK. A love of arty rock staples such as the Velvet Underground and the Talking Heads showed them the possibilities of combining approachable and exciting music with avant-garde sensibilities. The band’s party mentality gave birth to the pulsing 4/4 kick drums and intricate percussive elements that borrow from dance music, which plays a major part in their immersive live shows. Despite the complex influences and references, the message is simple – this is real, give Peace a chance.
