Missing the thrill and energy of live music? Us too. Which is why this week’s Synchedin Spotlight is the pounding Echoes by School Disco!

It’s been a tough old year without the excitement of gigs to keep us going. Is anyone else even starting to miss the fun of dodging launched cups full of indeterminate yellowy liquid? This is why this week we’ve turned to Brighton-based fuzz tycoons, School Disco. This band is capable of making raucous festival sets feel tantalisingly close – just hear for yourselves.

Formed in 2016 by Rory Lethbridge, Troy Holt, and Laur Underwood, the band began by relentlessly playing venues in Plymouth. Frequenting places like The Underground and The Junction helped them forge their raw psych sound and DIY ethos. These elements are still audible today, however the unforgiving snare stomping comes courtesy of drummer Luke Shaw, since Laur’s departure in 2020.

Echoes by School Disco is the first single from the band’s upcoming second album, which will be announced imminently. The track opens with all the attack of a machine gun, snare-heavy rhythms back a biting guitar riff. This track is almost a creature with a dual personality as the listener is tossed between driven drums and distortion, and spaced-out psychedelic reprieves. It’s the hypnotic chords and floaty vocals the band are perhaps more familiar with, but there’s a growing sense of a power struggle.

Until halfway through the track, when the beast finally wins. Silence, broken by the accented thrashing of guitar and drums, signals it’s time to buckle up. Echoes descends into a frenzy of reverb and fuzz-tangled mania, bass and rhythm guitar working in tandem to support the kaleidoscopic onslaught that leads the exit.

It’s an exciting release from School Disco that potentially marks a change of direction, whilst masterfully retaining their psych, noise roots. You won’t want to miss any updates on the new album, so check out the band’s Instagram and Facebook page for news.