8/10

Across their new EP 'Catching Waves', David Martinez and Rosey Hubbard build a dreamy indie-pop world that draws from surf textures, neo-psychedelia and soft-focus melodic pop while asking surprisingly weighty questions about what it means to live honestly. The EP feels light on its feet, but there's still plenty happening beneath the surface.

Opening offering ‘Telling Lies’ immediately establishes that tension. Its examination of persona and self-deception turns the pressure to become what others expect into something quietly suffocating. ‘Searching For You’ follows by looking backwards, towards the parts of ourselves that may have been silenced early in life, and carries one of the EP’s clearest ideas that nobody else is going to grant permission for you to become yourself.

Then comes ‘Wanting More’, where the pair turn their attention towards desire itself. The song captures the exhausting cycle of reaching for something, attaining it and almost immediately beginning to look elsewhere. It ' a deceptively relatable centrepiece, especially in the way it connects comparison, uncertainty and dissatisfaction without becoming preachy.

While the second half of 'Catching Waves' feels increasingly expansive. ‘Loving Circle’ shifts the focus from individual self-improvement towards community, suggesting that healing often happens through being recognised and supported by other people. Then ‘Come to Me’ pushes deeper into craving, broadening desire beyond romance towards status, possessions, safety and belonging.

Closing track ‘Eyes in Devotion’ brings everything together beautifully. Inspired by kirtan chanting, its repetition becomes less about progression than presence, finding meaning in complete attention to whatever action or connection is directly in front of us.

Here, Jitensha have created something thoughtful without making it heavy, philosophical without losing its warmth, and musically dreamy without drifting away from its emotional purpose. 'Catching Waves' doesn't promise to calm the sea. It simply suggests that we might become better at moving with it.