subtext by Lemondaze sounds huge, not just in volume but in ambition. Plenty of bands know how to sound big, but far fewer understand how to make scale feel meaningful, and from the opening seconds of polari it’s immediately clear that this is a carefully constructed atmosphere where beauty is given time to breathe.

The most obvious reference point is Cocteau Twins in the way the vocals drift through the mix soft, indistinct and heavily reverbed. Less about literal meaning than feeling and texture, there’s a strong echo of Bilinda Butcher in the way the voice exists inside the fog, and what prevents subtext from dissolving into pure haze is the rhythm section. Beneath all that gauze and glow is a groovy core that rolls and repeats to pull the music forward, giving it swing and momentum. Clocking in at nearly five minutes, the opener polari spends a long time cycling through subtly shifting passages that refuse predictability but remain consistently beautiful with the final act altering the structure and the length of repetitions in an unusually elegant way of refreshing the groove. c=bain slows everything to a funeral-doom pace, but still prioritises beauty over heaviness, feeling submerged, weighty and ominous until the massive final slow-motion storm. Lemondaze are far more interested in emotional impact than technical display, with o(type) alternating between hushed verses and crashing walls of noise with a contrast between softness and enveloping density that’s handled with care. On gravemind guitars give way to a subterranean low-end synth rumble, and when the drums finally crash in the effect is exhilarating. The closing track terra ties everything together with a reassuring chord sequence that gives way to an enormous stadium-sized guitar figure that enters like a curtain call. For a five-track EP built on softness and atmosphere, subtext lands with remarkable impact.