Accelerator (Transparent Clear 12in Vinyl)

Buzz-worthy post-punk outfit HighSchool continue their ascendant 2024 with the release of their highly awaited second studio EP, Accelerator, out now via [PIAS] Australia.

Collating singles ‘August 19’, ‘Doesn’t Matter’ and ‘She Took You to Narnia’, HighSchool’s second EP not only builds seamlessly on the sounds of their 2021 cult-classic debut Forever At Last but looks set to assert their arrival from one of indie’s best-kept secrets to far bigger things. Having spent the intervening years polishing their craft across Melbourne and their adopted home of London, Accelerator was produced by rising producer Finn Billingham, mixed by GRAMMY-winning engineer Philippe Weiss (Earl Sweatshirt, Nas, Drake) and mastered by Blur and Depeche Mode producer Ben Hillier. The resulting five-track collection is suffused with emotionally charged and elliptical songwriting, conjuring the tangible aura of the band’s post-punk forebears as filtered through a lens of contemporary lo-fi bedroom pop.

Continuing to hone their ever-tasteful sound, low-slung instrumentation play off propulsive rhythm sections, while sumptuous soundscapes are balanced with a hook-replete pop nous and rich vein of melodicism, all permeated by evocative layers of spectral and saturnine atmosphere. Beneath its foggy exterior, HighSchool’s music pulls effortlessly from the gamut of indie rock history - from shoegaze and new wave to slowcore, jangle pop, slacker rock, art pop and beyond - into something wholly their own.