Flowers - Stuck by Fortuna POP!

London three-piece Flowers released their first single on Fortuna POP! on 19 August 2013. Despite only having formed last year they have already toured Europe with The Pains Of Being Pure Of Heart and recorded with Stuart Moxham of Young Marble Giants. Fittingly, Flowers draw a line between the joyous fuzzpop of the Pains and the minimalist brilliance of Young Marble Giants.

The trio is comprised of Sam (guitar), Jordan (drums) and Rachel (bass, vocals). Together they create a wall of sound larger than the sum of their parts, catchy pop songs hidden in noise. And Rachel possesses one of those beautiful pop voices to die for, with echoes of Elizabeth Fraser, Hope Sandoval and Harriet Wheeler.

The single features three songs recorded entirely at home in East London, where they all live together. Fiercely DIY, Flowers have spent the past year or so writing voraciously and recording frequently, burning the CDRs that are hungrily snapped up at their gigs, often with no artwork or tracklisting, random pot-luck selections of the hundred or so songs they have recorded to date.

“Stuck” is a beautifully stark stunner of a song, performed by Rachel alone, playing just a single-string bass. Rachel explains, "Everyone asks me why I have a one-string bass... It's not for show or effect (though luckily people seem to like it) but came out of necessity. I've always played lots of instruments but never guitar or bass, so I didn't know how to pick the strings. I strummed the bass when I first played it and hit all the strings and made an awful noise! So Sam took the top three off for me. I've learnt to pick a little now, but we like keeping just the one string.. It means I don't have to think about it when I play the bass and can just sing and enjoy the music."