Despite its tender age, The BearFox is the most popular Georgian rock project of the year. Their beautiful, subtly melancholic, easy-to-understand music quickly won over an impressive breadth of audience. In the late 2013, Irakli “Betkho” Manchkhashvili (ex-Green Room, Catch The Clouds) and Merab “Mebo” Nutsubidze began collaborating and soon recorded a handful of songs featured on this EP.
For Georgian readers of this blog, these songs already need little introduction. But still if anybody comes over the band for the first time, I’d say airily sung Holding You just amazed the most who heard it. Other songs on this recording are built upon the similar values: perfectly created magic, at times hypnotic atmosphere, flown over by soaring vocals. For approximate parallel, just imagine Sigur Ros doing a bit less complicated music.
At present, the band has added three more members (Achi Shioshvili on drums, Biko Askurava on guitar and Tsotne Chikobava on bass) and has commenced the live performances, with a bit heavier, alternative/indie rock sound. Meanwhile, this debut EP gets 8 / 10 from me with future expectations very high.
Album can be streamed from BandCamp: The BearFox – The BearFox (2014)
