Formed late last year, SCHØØL are a Parisian four-piece with aspirations to become the band they dreamed of as teenagers.
Inspired by shoegaze outfits from the 90s, including Swirlies and Drop Nineteens, SCHØØL’s sound feels like a wall of sound, chaotic yet buoyant. The slow, melodic dirge of N.S.M.L.Y.D reminds me of creative abundance that aligned with The Horrors’ sophomore album, Primary Colours.
Primary Colours was, in and of itself, an effective reimagining of the intersection of Joy Division and German experimental rock outfit Can. On N.S.M.L.Y.D, SCHØØL position themselves as the natural conclusion of not just those sounds, but My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus and Mary Chain. Somewhat ironically, the melodic playfulness at the centre of all that noise is intended to mimic the kind of catchy earworm you might experience in a classic mobile phone ringtone. In some ways, this feels subversive, and yet I hear a similar playfulness elsewhere in shoegaze, for example in the melody of My Bloody Valentine’s When You Sleep.
Just listening to N.S.M.L.Y.D sent me down a rabbit hole of other artists that I love, and perhaps that is the point. The song’s title is an acronym for “Nothing Satisfies Me Like You Do”, the repeated refrain that makes up its chorus, and the song itself is about the experience of being a fan, and of idolising others. Add SCHØØL to the growing list of artists that satisfy me, and look out for the forthcoming album, promised soon.