Gus Garcia - Many Hiding Places
Gus Garcia learned his trade in his native Brazil as the guitarist and lead singer in a Radiohead tribute band. Now based in the UK, Garcia is stepping out into the dangerous slippery world of the singer-songwriter.
As you might imagine, there is a strong hint of the ‘head in his tunes. For example ‘Menace’, has a vocal melody very similar to what Mr. Yorke has made his own, but fortunately for Garcia the rest of the song is taken well out of the Radiohead context.
The lead part of all three of the songs on show on this EP are taken by Garcia’s Beck-esque vocals and strong acoustic guitar melodies. Opener ‘Colleagues’ teases with a dark edge to Garcia’s roaming husky vocals, before tripping up into a surprisingly bouncy chorus with ‘ba-bah’ backing vocals and chirpy horns.
The pick of the bunch though, is ‘Before the Winter’, which jags about, puzzling the listener with a disjointed rhythm in the verse, before straightening out for strong clarifying chorus. It is the song that shows the most evidence of Garcia’s ability as a song-writer, rather than a man who has just immersed himself too deeply into one band, and can’t find his way out.