Sunglasz Vendor

Formed from members of Bristol's avant-garde underbelly (Bingo Fury, Ex-Agent, Grandchild), Sunglasz Vendor sees devout experimentalists turn to embrace the eternal comforts of rock radio hooks, pensive emo, and Kerrang! teenage angst.

On their blistering second album, Sunglasz Vendor capture the seething urges for excitement, change and genuine connection that most feel - but rarely act upon. Asking someone out, deleting social media, confessing your feelings for a friend, quitting a desk job: pivotal moments in contemporary life that are agonized over for far too long. Across Break Glass, the Bristol-based trio look to shatter this mould, or at least document their attempts.

Inspired by the early-2000s radio rock that first drew the band to music, Break Glass finds Sunglasz Vendor swinging unapologetically for maximalism. The wiry three-piece - Rafi Cohen (vocals, guitar), Eve Rosenberg (bass), Finn Hodgson (drums) - is blown out to absurd proportions: mixes deliberately slammed, guitars stacked thick until the waveform chokes into a distorted, heaving mass.

The result is a shrine to the rock music of a zillennial childhood; but too self-aware for its own good. Turn-of-the-millennium titans such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Offspring, Foo Fighters, Sum 41, Blink‑182, and Linkin Park loom large in its DNA, though the result feels more like a reverse-engineered hybrid of emo, post-hardcore, and indie-landfill relics.

Over a taut 40 minutes, Break Glass offers a wry tour of anxiety in an aggressively online world, where self-presentation is inescapable. The album navigates the modern compulsion for validation - of status, of friendships, of romance - alongside endless search for fleeting purpose, and the creeping dread of living too long as the wider world slowly deteriorates.

Sunglasz Vendor holed up at Hither Green Studios with producer Joseph Futak (Piglet, Tapir!, Aga Ujma) to record the album. Laying out ten tracks in just as many days, they arrived prepared, with all songs heavily road tested by their relentless DIY gigging schedule. On top of opening slots for the likes of Squid, The Breeders, Water From Your Eyes, The New Eves, Cola and The Tubs, the band have toured the UK with Kiran Leonard, Blue Bendy, The Last Whole Earth Catalog and Glasshouse Red Spidermite.

Perhaps Break Glass is best summed up by its opening seconds. “Break glass and sort of run away” bellows Cohen, as the band launches at breakneck speed into a frenetic, mathy rattle. Though born from the impulse to act on long-suppressed feelings, Break Glass ultimately soundtracks the slow realisation that action alone rarely brings the outcome you imagined. Instead, Sunglasz Vendor channels that restless energy into something louder, faster and more communal - equal parts nostalgia and experimentation.