Caustic guitar feedback colliding with a delicate vocoded voice creeping through the quiet. That’s how “shadowhands” opens, where tender acoustic chords and new wave licks are thrusted into a robust, crowded wall of sound. Its pervasive moodiness is archetypal of pouring immense emotion into the electric guitar.
A harder, heavier sensibility, so potently put to song, is a first for Oliver Beardmore. The brains behind silt., he now labels his output as such to earnestly and accurately represent the many contributors to the music, indicative of its current iteration. Explaining the catalyst for “shadowhands”, Beardmore shares that it stemmed from trying to funnel everyone’s musical interests: “To try and marry the electronic hyperpop elements with guitar music was definitely the remit for where we ended up in that song.”
The lead-up to this era of greater intent was like siltation – it’s been a slow process. Beardmore’s take on alternative guitar music was credited to his real name, and only in the past few years, following 2024’s Swimming in the Light of a Cold Star EP, did the core lineup of around ten members settle. Most came from stints in previous bands, including each other’s or other people’s, some touring and others not. Beardmore’s sister even plays guitar in the project.
Another question then arises; whether silt. is a band or ensemble, but this labelling becomes irrelevant when Beardmore outlines their thoughtful intentions of staying together. “We’re going to make the best music that we’re able to make,” he explains. “Our egos are at the door, and we’re really pushing each other for that common goal.”
Today, shoegaze has been given a new lease of life because of younger artists like Wisp and julie rejuvenating the genre. silt. is no different, evocative of Slowdive’s more ambient shoegaze excursions; The Cure’s shimmering, atmospheric new wave guitars; and Hum’s passionate, soaring alt-rock. It’s a sublime mixture for any music listener whose heartstrings are best tugged by ethereal chords. Beardmore personally cites DIIV’s , “I’ve made different music after listening to it,” and recalls bumping into an old friend who told him he was “never the same after [he] listened to My Bloody Valentine’s .”
The incredible sonics like those bands are what they strive to achieve, but “songwriting is the centrepoint” that defines the music, says Beardmore. “I can’t speak highly enough of how important I think songwriting is. I think it can help music reach people, regardless of their taste. If they can get into the song, they can be introduced to new stuff around that as well.” So, when Beardmore points to his bandmate David Boyden’s wealth of knowledge on classic songwriting, such as Bob Dylan and Neil Young, silt.’s precious music becomes much more than gorgeous intricate soundscapes, but valuable narratives worth telling.
Case in point is the upcoming brain like a silent hill, due for release in November. Although packaged like an EP, Beardmore feels it’s spiritually more like a mini-album. “I feel like an album’s worth of effort has gone into it,” he says with a laugh. The previous single “trauma porn” was its first taster that gave a ragged edge to dream pop, dealing with themes of solitude, but “shadowhands” pushes this severity further. “There’s slightly more of an addiction, a targeted outlook,” Beardmore explains. “It’s definitely the harder edge of it, not only sonically, but also topically and emotionally. It deals with being in a bit more of a far-out place than where we’ve gone before.”
For silt., venturing into more emotive territory hasn’t happened just because, but to stretch their musical muscles and act on their wider ambition. They treats songs like “open systems”, works that continue revealing new meanings with every return. “That emotional self-actualisation is a centrepoint for everyone. I see some people express that more through guitar or others from production, but it all comes from the individual,” says Beardmore. “We’ve written so many different things into [the EP]. I’m very keen for it not to be a singular literal thing, but for there to be a lot of other things for people to find when the time is right.”
What’s really driving Beardmore and the others, besides the fresh conceptual paint, is their excitement to release this new music. They’re now confident enough to create a body of work that sits among their favourite records and, feeling heavily indebted, move them just as that treasured music did. “We love playing live, and we really do think it can really do something for people. This really is all in service of the music... that is the common thing for everyone.”