1000 Rabbits – Bear Hunt
We’ve been following 1000 Rabbits since Virgin Soil (W08) and Rubik’s Cube (W14), so “Bear Hunt” arriving alongside the debut EP feels like the payoff of a campaign worth watching. The full EP, Are we friends yet?, is out now on Young and is one of the most anticipated releases of the year. We’ll cover it properly in the May Spotlight.
“Bear Hunt” is the EP’s third track and the one getting the video, directed by South London artist Ché Deedigan. The five-piece, Laura (violin), Liv (synthesiser), Paolo (guitar), River (vocals), and Luke (drums), have been shaping these songs through constant live performance: the track, like everything on the EP, has been rebuilt night after night until it found its form. The loud-quiet-loud dynamics and the way River’s vocal line builds into something close to chaos by the end are both characteristic of what the band have been doing live at The Windmill and beyond, and the studio version holds that energy without flattening it.
The EP sits alongside “Virgin Soil” and “Rubik’s Cube” rather than replacing them: the six tracks together make a stronger case for where the band are heading than either single alone could. Two years of living rooms, rehearsal rooms and stages distilled into thirty-odd minutes. I’ve been listening since the beginning, and the jump from debut single to full EP is the kind of progression that justifies the early attention.
