The Bohicas Strut Their Indie Stuff On Debut 'The Making Of'

I think one of the reasons Royal Blood were so successful is because their gritty, heavy and raw approach felt so accessible to a wide audience, rather than just the immediate fans of that genre. The Bohicas, in essence, have a very similar appeal, maybe just with a dash of retro-pulp thrown in as well.

The indie-rock four piece from Essex have come out with their debut full length project ‘The Making Of’ off the record label Domino, and have had a fair amount of hype surrounding them in the build up to this, especially from the likes of Radio 1. Some early critics claimed that many of their singles were a little samey, and that their style may be leading the to producing very similar sounds on every track.

There’s some pretty strong singles on the album, which have really worked as instigators for the love they’ve been receiving up until this point. ‘XXX’ is a pretty fast paced track, whilst still fitting the bands DNA that they seemed to establish on the other single tracks like ‘Where You At’ and ‘Swarm.

For me, other highlights of this record fall particularly in the initial stages, with the first 3 songs setting a strong tone for the rest of the album. I love the vocal switches in ‘To Die For’ and then the guitar riffs on the hook give the song a wicked edge.Away from these, one of the most impressive tracks on this debut comes in the form of the title track, where The Bohicas really show their diversity with a more laid back, but still preserve the heavy bass lines and even add in some screeching guitar sequences over the top.

The earlier Royal Blood reference is maybe a little more obvious on the choruses to tracks like ‘Girlfriend’ which I didn’t mind, I liked the instrumental and the heavy bass line on the chorus, but I just couldn’t get away from the basic and at times a little bland theme to the song. The repittion of “You’re my girlfriend” becomes tiresome, but fortunately, this is probably the weakest track of the album.

Away from this it’s a strong debut from the boys. I love the fact that they’ve maintained that local band vibe, and the although lyrically they’re not doing anything new, instrumentally they fit snugly into a pretty successful formula of indie rock with enough personality to differentiate from others and have their own style.

To find out more about The Bohicas click here.

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Words by Thomas Schofield

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