Establishing themselves with a glistening indietronica sound unveiled across 2024, the London duo high jump has received a host of press support, international radio play, and playlist placements from Spotify and Apple Music. Comprised of Harry Martin and Rick Holland, the pair’s brainchild has quickly become an exciting new prospect, with their now-released debut EP ‘001’, hoping to cement their rising star status.
Soaking their sound in a colourful, celestial presence thanks to warming modulations across the choice of instrumentation, the project’s arrangements are inherently evocative, capturing emotions within the vivid intricacies of their songwriting. Dreamy, pulsing synth lines and rhythmic, effect-drenched guitar set a scene for hazy vocal performances, delivering infectious, transparent melodies. With slight twangs of pop energy amongst the otherworldly sounds, high jump has captured a unique but familiar sound that you can’t help but enjoy.
Taking a deep dive into the project, Harry explains, “Over the last couple of years I was writing and sending unsolicited demos to Rick, drummer in the band Tungz. Rick managed to cherry-pick the most promising of these through a series of long voice notes and ad hoc studio sessions, and we soon had a collection of songs that felt significant enough to share. Starting with ‘M2K’ at the end of 2023, we decided to start putting some ideas together and broadcast these tunes further than our friendship group.
The sound of the collection is really an anecdotal summation of our influences and the music we’ve enjoyed recently. We didn’t set out to achieve or replicate any specific sound and there’s a blend of influences in there, from The War on Drugs and Cocteau Twins to Jai Paul and Toro Y Moi. We love the counterbalancing senses of scale we’ve managed to capture in these six tracks. All of them started in bedrooms and huddled corners of our day-to-day, and there are plenty of moments where you can feel that intimacy, but working at Snap! Studios with Max Cooke to finish the recordings really enhanced the more ambitious sections with extra layers of grandeur and finesse.
Lyrically the EP trails and explores different layers and perspectives of over-nostalgia, digging into how this can affect our appreciation of the present. This collection of songs was written at a time when big life decisions and junctures were arriving at an uncomfortable pace, which probably explains how this feeling of lament and resistance to change percolated across the EP on various levels.
These themes also bleed into the high jump ethos. It’s a kinetic blend of inspiration and expression, and we wanted to relay this snapshot of our identity on that exact premise. Taking inspiration from fashion cycles and seasonal variations, we set out to epitomise ourselves in a specific moment. That’s what makes this stage of the high jump evolution so exciting, and we can’t wait for 001 to be an introduction to the many releases and performances we have planned for the coming months.”
Listen to ‘001’ here…
