While the 80s, 90s, and 2000s forged definitive twee-pop roads across the length and breadth of the United Kingdom, Manchester stood defiant against this ‘wave of fey’ with the jangly muscularity of The Smiths, a whole host of Creation Records acts, and two urchins under the name of Gallagher, who appeared to tap into lad culture just as lad culture was primed to become a thing.

Autocamper seem set to be ‘the’ band that could break through such musical machismo with a Blanche/Budge 7″ vinyl single that finds the halfway point between quirk and laconic bravado that might just be acceptable to the growing cosmopolitan culture of the city.

A-side Blanche trips over itself to bring us something different. As such, the chiming, melodic The Cats Miaow style riffs stumble into The Lightning Seeds languid male vocals before the female vocals brush against all that we know about the current Melbourne Dolewave scene.

It is fluttering, twinkling indie-pop with perfect levels of finely coiffured indie-pop vocal disinterest and is all augmented with a  semblance of Manchester bombast  courtesy of driven rhythms and battered percussion.

Budge offers a whole lot of pretty. Sparkling, plinking synths and luscious guitar-pop cushion Niamh Purtill’s vocal sweetness and gently let it land on an unobtrusive, jangly indie-pop aesthetic that offers the notion that melancholy is just ‘too gorgeous’.

Safe Suburban Home Records are on a ridiculous run of form in 2024, with celebrated releases by the likes of Teenage Tom Petties, Porcine, Oort Clod, and R.E. Seraphin already in the bag. Autocampers will eventually reside easily among such exalted company.

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