Carlisle’s The Conflux Grandiosely Enter the Scene with ‘The Short Straw’

‘The Short Straw’, a new EP from the four-piece alternative/indie rock band The Conflux, was released in June 2022. 

When the band members first got together in school, they were influenced by bands like Arctic Monkeys and The White Stripes and started playing and writing their own songs. 

The group made its official debut in the Battle of the Bands in October 2021 where they went on to win, launching and solidifying the group as a whole. Wreck Studio Services, a Carlisle recording studio, mixed and mastered the album.

Opening the EP is the upbeat rock song 'All You Live For'. The chromatic guitar riff carries the listener through the entire song, further grabbing our attention with its bridge which concludes with a voice-and-guitar duet before the music ends abruptly with an uneven cadence.

'She Keeps Me Going' follows with a syncopated rhythm and an overall grunge feel. Prior to the EP’s release, ‘She Keeps Me Going’ was released as a single in February 2022 and serves as the opening theme music for a political satire show, ‘The Weekly Feed Show’. 

The EP's title track, ‘The Short Straw’, comes third – an exciting, fast-paced song about how nothing is as it seems. “If it can’t go wrong it probably will / The dreams are left for me to instil” exclaims the alto lead vocalist. He alternates between regular and speech-like singing, the latter creating a dissonant influence on the overall tonality of the song.

The EP’s final song, 'When You Turn Your Back' is about envy and love triangles. "When you turn your back and I see you run to him / All the thoughts that enter my head and I see my chances are slim / Here I am just kidding myself, thinking I can win”. The antagonistic melodic line feels amplified by the depressingly dismal mood of the lyric. The opening guitar riff sets the tone for the song, with the instrumentation, rhythm, and harmony in the chorus building gradually but quickly dropping back to its initial level during the bridge.

For the band, this is a tremendously exciting time. The EP's release was immediately followed by their appearance at Dalston Festival in August of this year, and the EP broadcasted on Wicked Spins Radio, a UK radio station. Do we see an album coming out in the future?

Evelina Lungu 

evelina.lungu

Image: ‘The Short Straw’ Official EP Cover