I grabbed the chance to review this album because Gurgles listed Cardiacs as an influence on their sound. I’m a long time fan of Cardiacs (I first saw them in the early 80s), and bands that admit they are influenced by them are few and far between; so this immediately intrigued me.
‘Progpoppsych’ is, to say the least, an interesting label to give your band’s sound. Depending on the listener’s musical experience to date this could indicate quite a range of possible styles. So what does it mean for Gurgles?
My initial listen through produced the following thoughts ‘Oooo that’s a lovely echo on that’, ‘The keyboards on this sound a bit Nektar-like, well sort of’, ‘It’s bit like prog filtered through an 80s synth band sound’, ‘Sometimes the vocals sound like they’re off a 70s’ children’s programme or possibly the Innes Book of Records, or possibly Gong’, ‘That’s just plain weird’, ’80s rave keyboards’, ‘Love those whispered vocals’, ‘That intro sounds a bit Marillion or It Bites’, ‘ It’s pop but nothing like I’ve heard before’, ‘Why don’t they include the Polyphonic Spree in their list of influences’, ‘Frankly that’s more like Atomic Rooster than Atomic Rooster’, ‘Getting hints of Dr and The Medics’ and ‘Isn’t that a beat poem?’. I think you’re getting the idea here, Gurgles are hard to pin down.
Gurgles themselves list Cardiacs, Jim O’Rourke, Steely Dan, Prefab Sprout, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Robert Wyatt, Chicago, Pink Floyd and Van der Graaf Generator amongst many influences. Most of these can be heard in their sound. I’d like to add to the list though – I’d include acid house, Dr and the Medics, The Strawberry Alarm Clock (and other psychedelic pop bands of the 60s), ? and the Mysterians … I think you can see where I’m going with this.
This sounds like it’s a grab bag of sounds from the late 60s and beyond but for me the sum is way more than the parts. These songs are clever – that is musically clever and lyrically clever – and make from their influences some poppy melodies driven by some frankly wonderful keyboard playing. This stuff is groovy. So Progpoppsych is Prog you can dance to, you see now? You could, and I did, sit and listen and really get into the sound, and playing and production but you could stick this on at a party and people would dance (Maybe not all parties, choose your social gathering carefully).
The album’s opener ‘You’re Madder Than Me’ eases us into Gurgles’ musical world gently. This has almost what I’d call a traditional mid-tempo Prog sound. There’s some really clever use of echo on the vocals that grabbed me here.
‘Eccleshill’ is the song that had the intro that made me think of It Bites. It’s a hymn to BD2.
‘Weakdays’ and ‘How Could I Tell’ are where it gets strange. Suddenly I’m back in the 80s, it’s synth driven pop rock with an edge. ‘How Could I Tell’ even features an acid rave outro (although that’s acid rave as played by Hawkwind).
‘Summer in The City’ and we’re back on familiar Prog ground. Although in what we now know is typical Gurgles style they throw in a couple more things. Namely a rather wondrous marching beat section and some rather groovy harmony vocals.
I have nothing more to say about ‘You Send Me Up’ than it’s keyboard driven dance rock track. Get up and get down!
‘Over The Valley’ is a lovely ballad at it’s heart that although there’s a vocal effect right in the middle of the song that I found rather jarring to the ear. The track though is good enough that you can ignore it.
My stand out track is one track you can’t dance to (although if you were into interpretative dance you probably could give it a go), ‘J.G. Mallard’, a spooky train based tale of technology and politics with spoken passages and Hawkwind-like sound generator driven keyboard riffs.
It’s probably time in the review to talk about the playing and the production. Well you certainly can’t fault the playing Augustin (Singing, Fender Rhodes, Oxford Synthesiser Company OSCar, Piano), Nanette (Singing, ‘Nan of the North’ Precision Fretless, Bass Guitar) and Bradley (Self-crafted drum kit) certainly know what they are doing. And the production by MJ from Hookworms was generally right up there. There was the odd moment when I thought ‘oh no not another vocal effect’ but these were few and far between and to honest they didn’t detract from the overall pleasure.
Do I like this? Yes, I do a lot. I found myself going back to replay tracks again and again. I’m beginning to wonder what this would sound like on vinyl.
Would I recommend it? Yes I would but only if you’re prepared to be open minded – you need to acknowledge that music can be fun. Take a listen first, that is really listen, it’s not going to be immediate so you may have to listen a few times. Of course if you already have a taste for any of the bands listed as influences then dive right in.
Oh, and I’m sorry Gurgles I just didn’t get the Cardiacs’ thing at all.
This Castleford band is quickly becoming hot property in the rock world, if the hype is to be believed. They toured with Enter Shikari earlier this year and now are rapidly becoming the band that festival organisers want on their line-up. In fact, they have just been announced to play the Vans Warped Tour at Ally Pally in October.
Always one for liking to catch a band on the up, particularly a local one, I went to see their gig at Unity Works – the main stage set up in Wakefield for Long Division. The anticipation was rewarded.
They play hard and they play fast and stay tight throughout; whilst jumping, thrashing and crashing around, somehow managing to avoid each other using the smidgen of space they have in between instruments and amps. They give their all to the performance – sweat, saliva and beer rains. They look and play as if they have played for the last 24 hours (and no doubt they have!) and they probably could go on for another week.
This a thrilling band to watch live, I left buzzing (although their frenetic movements may deter those who like the performance to not detract from the music). There is definitely an air of Iggy Pop, Ian Curtis and Kurt Cobain about the way Jason, the lead vocalist moves. These musicians have a serious amount of skill between them that backs up the hype. Keep an eye on these lads, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ll be hearing a lot more about them soon.
After their gig, I had the pleasure of being invited onto Allusondrugs’ tour bus to have a chat with Drey (guitarist), Damian (guitar, vocals) and Jason (lead vocals) about their debut Download appearance the previous day, Long Division and the Wakefield music scene.
LSF: How was Download? Have you been before as fans?
A: Really good, no we haven’t… what a way to start Download! Even though the weather was bad. The sound was great. We played Jake’s tent and it was full by the time it finished…that might have been something to do with the rain! The crowd were great, such friendly people and we saw a lot of black clothes and big, tall men with long hair going ‘rah’! We were watching Slipknot from the wheelchair bit, saw wheelchair users rocking out – it was proper great!
LSF: What is your favourite thing to see from the stage?
A: People singing back at you.
LSF: How would you compare Download to Long Division?
A: Download was a landmark gig for our CV so it had to go well. That means you’re more nervous about it. We’ve done Long Division a couple of times before, so we knew what to expect but we still put the same effort in to the performance. We give everything to every gig, and the fans. We do it until we throw up. Jason (singer) does anyway…
LSF: What other bands or artists from LD would you recommend keeping an eye on?
A: Menace Beach, Forever Cult, Brawlers, Adore// Repel Bi:Lingual, NARCS, Future of the left, Pulled Apart by Horses
LSF: What is it about the Wakefield area that is creating such a vibe?
A: Good promoters are getting on it.
LSF: And such good music?
A: There’s absolutely nothing to do here, apart from do that. Your brain wants stimulation or maybe it’s the poisons from all the power stations!
LSF: Is there any competition between bands around here?
A: We all get on, everyone’s a musician here. Bands shouldn’t be like that as everyone is in it together.
LSF: What advice would you give to young starters in bands?
A: Work very hard, play as many gigs as possible, take pride in your work and don’t slack off.
LSF: Is it enough to be good or do you need to network too?
A: We applied for loads of festivals when we were starting out and got three replies, it’s hard to get in that way. Our advice would be to network, be a nice person, don’t be a dickhead. It helps if you’re really good as well…. Suppose they wouldn’t talk to you if you weren’t. A promoter who is good at their job wouldn’t put forward shit bands.
LSF: Do you do your own promotion?
A: As much as we can. We have a booking agent and manager. We’re still associated with Clue records. A lot of our releases have been DIY or self-releases more recently. We’re still feeling stuff out for ourselves.
LSF: Summer plans?
A: Play all the festivals and try and get rich. Get rich real quick!
There’s nothing wrong with a healthy burst of pent up rage and the anger emanating from NARCS performing ‘Head Boy Sonnet’ on stage is something to behold. Wilko as lead singer is giving it full throttle – screaming out his fury about the behaviour of right wing politicians – sufficient to send a shiver down your spine, Stanley on drums is shirtless and glistening with sweat, John on bass is playing from his guts, and Jo on guitar is focused and intense.
You can tell these aren’t hyped up let’s-pretend-we’ve-found-a bit of angst guys within a few moment of listening to them. This band from Leeds care passionately about their messages and they care about the quality of their music. And if you could bottle some of the energy they’re creating on stage, you could fuel your own political campaign.
Wilko
Earlier in the day I’d met the band to find out what makes them tick musically, so it was interesting to contrast the four friendly laid-back young men I’d sat around a table with to these fury-fuelled performers on stage. But what was clear from this earlier discussion was that NARCS are committed to a keen sense of justice and are not some casual, whip-up the crowd into futile frenzy type of performers.
‘We all have jobs where we see stuff that’s happening to people on the front line, and it’s good to have an outlet for those feelings. But we can’t tell anyone else what to think, which is why we don’t want to preach,’ says Joe, who by day, is a primary school teacher, and together with Wilko does most of the song writing.
‘I’m stupidly laid back most of the time,’ says Wilko, ‘So our music is a great way for me to get my feelings out.’ But he’s also very clear that the band have to feel committed to their songs, rather than using them as a way to simply stir up their audience’s emotions. ‘We might write a song and then find our feelings about something have changed – so it doesn’t feel quite right to perform that one any more,’ he says.
The band get their inspiration from a wide range of sources, bring new ideas and each other and then thrash ideas around.
‘We’re not into producing meaningless pop songs,’ says John. ‘If we discover any new idea or new music we always share it with each other.’
‘I think at first we were a bit precious about developing our songs – but now things fall by the way side if nobody digs an idea,’ Joe says.
Joe
It’s not just contemporary political issues that influence the bands choice of topics. The powerful track ‘Blue Bags’ which the band performed at Long Division is all about the Killing Fields of Cambodia, and they’ve recently been working on a song called ‘Mongol Death Methods’.
Joe says ‘People tend to think about the Genghis Khan and how important he was in opening up the trade routes but they were incredibly cruel in the way they treated individuals. During one siege in Russia they promised the soldiers that if they laid down their arms they would pardon them – but instead they stripped the guys bare, and laid them on top of each other and used them as a road…’
So often, Joe says, people want to focus on the longterm benefits of actions which actually cause a lot of suffering at the time. ‘It’s the same with research that came out of experiments in concentration camps. And now it’s a case of many people not recognising the effect of Tory policies on people’s lives.They consider it collateral damage but we don’t think it’s worth the cost to individuals,’ he says.
‘In many ways ours is a bit of a hippy message about thinking about other people – we’re not asking our audiences to go out and smash up the streets,’ Joe assures me with an earnestness that is compelling.
John
So where do the band get their musical influences? You can’t help but be reminded a bit of Alex Turner when you listen to Wilko’s voice, but I’m not sure how keen the band would be to be compared to the Arctic Monkeys. Instead they’d rather be linked to bands like Radio Head – because of the politics and Fat White Family because they are constantly pushing musical boundaries. ‘We’ve also been quite influenced by Nick Cave – because we’re miserable bastards,’ John says.
Stanley, who is also a DJ, says he’s more into drum and bass and jungle than the other three, and brings inspiration from this into the band’s sound.
Wilko reveals that he recently spent a holiday discovering the Unknown Mortal Orchestra, and Joe professes to currently being into ‘Girl Band – an Irish noise rock band – and Kendrick Lamar. I like the more journalistic rapper stuff and how they take on the government and the police.’
Stanley
Our conversation was also joined by Scott, from Clue Records, who signed up the band two years. Scott says he was attracted to NARCS because they were ‘Angsty, angry, wordy, passionate and political without being overtly politcal. – they reminded me of the early Manics, and they’re quite Smith-ish in their word play.’
NARCS state boldly on their website that ‘apathy isn’t something we aren’t into’ and that’s a maxim that seems to apply to all aspects of their work. They tell me proudly how they recorded their first album in just two days ‘We started recording round the time we got signed,’ Stanley explains ‘We wanted to do it as a live recording – to give it an urgent feel.
They’re also keen to point out that their set list for Long Division contains a lot of new material. ‘Last year most of the stuff we played here was off that album but this year there are only two from the album,’ Wilko says.
The band feel that recently they have become more flexible in their approach to creating sounds. ‘We got very caught up in the idea of honest, but we realised that unless you use not pedals at all, then you can’t really get too fixated about never using any effects. So these days we’re more experimental,’ Joe says.
So how do the band picture their future? ‘We have an agreed sense of the direction we’re going in,’ Jo explains. But we’re not focusing on being world famous – just doing what we do, what matters to us.’
‘We have a very DIY attitude,’ says Wilko, ‘And we intend to keep doing what we’re doing for as long as we want to…’
From their early singles for Concrete Records to their genre defying ‘Six Million Ways To Live’ LP, the Dub Pistols have always added a much needed Rock n Roll swagger to the UK’s dance scene. Chewing up hip-hop, dub, techno, ska & punk & spitting them out in a renegade futuristic skank they have consistently defied genres & exceeded the highest of expectations.
Their genre-mashing abilities have led to remix work for the likes of Moby, Crystal Method, Limp Bizkit, Bono, Korn & Ian Brown, and seen them work with hiphop legend Busta Rhymes on ‘One’, a track for Blade 2 & ‘Molotov’ on the Y Tu Mama Tambien soundtrack.
In recent years the band has mutated from a studio based duo into a fully fledged live act often featuring the talents of guest vocalists Rodney P, Specials front man Terry Hall, rap wünderkid T.K., Sugardaddy horn-blower Tim Hutton & scratch maestro DJ Stix. This years Glastonbury saw Neville Staple from The Specials join the Pistols live on stage for the encore ‘Gangsters’.
Front man Barry Ashworth is also known for his full-throttle peak-time DJ sets across Australia, Singapore, Serbia, Dubai, Thailand, Germany, Croatia, Italy and France, to name but a few. Whilst 2010 is yet another busy year for Barry; licensing deals with Playstation Singstar & Hollywood Movies Parenthood & Piranha 3D, remixes in the making for Atomic Hooligan, DJ Love & Myagi, and his co-owned label Westway making bigger waves than ever. There is just no letting up for this much-loved party starter.
Hands Off Gretel: From left Sean, Laura, Lauren & Danny at Players Bar Wakefield
Some bands have professionalism written all over them and Hands Off Gretel is one of those bands. It’s not just the compelling stage presence of lead-singer/songwriter Lauren Tate – who does cute and powerful in equally compelling measure – but a tightness and confidence about the way all four members perform together, that tells you these guys from Barnsley are heading for the big time.
Hands Off Gretel has only been around since 2014 but already they’re making a big impact on both the local and national scene. Chosen third out of 3,000 bands to appear at the famous Camden Barfly, London, the band is now getting so many requests to do gigs that they’re able ‘pick the best ones’, according to guitarist, and founder member Sean McAvinue.
‘Being chosen for Camden was amazing,’ says Sean. ‘It makes such a difference getting seen. Before this it was like getting people into a headlock, pulling them out through the door and trying to force them to listen to you.’ It’s hard to believe that Sean – unapologetically eye-catching in his plaited beard, retro kilt and shock of blonde hair which almost sweeps the floor when he bends double over his guitar, has ever had to work that hard to get anybody’s attention. But there’s an unassuming enthusiasm in his passion for the band’s success, which this reviewer found refreshingly convincing.
Sean
The band emerged from an original music venture called The Lauren Tate Band, but after Sean broke a few bones at a rehearsal (from a fall down stairs), the pair revaluated their future, and started Hands Off Gretel. They were joined by Danny Pollard on bass and Laura Moakes on drums, and the band launched last October.
Lauren has one of those voices many singers would die for – powerful, rich and distinctly her own. And when others might resort to screeching, Lauren is always fully in control of her voice. She fluctuates from deep chesty notes to big powerful musical yells with an effortless quality that tells you this girl is in it for the long run. ‘I did a lot of vocal lessons but I’ve found my own techniques that work for me. A lot of people tell me you can’t sing like that cos of what it will do to your voice … but there’s no blood so…’ Lauren says with an endearing shrug.
Being in control of her own destiny is clearly very important for Lauren, and on stage she has a fierce energy that punches way above her slender form. ‘Before gigs men look at me and think she’s nice and they don’t expect me to have a voice with a lot of anger. But men don’t hang around when I come off stage,’ Lauren informs me proudly. And given the sort of things Lauren chooses to write and sing about, it’s probably not surprising.
Lauren
It’s rather a pity that the generically adjusted sound levels at The Player Bar at Long Division don’t do the band’s lyrics full justice – as everything ends up sounding just a touch samey. Fortunately songs such as ‘Be Mine’ can be heard on Sound Cloud. A spirited anthem to the dichotomy of being attracted to someone and wanting a relationship while being acutely aware of wanting to hang onto your sense of self, this is a clever and moving song.
It is also a song that was clearly inspired by a bass line from Nirvana and Iggy Pop.. and it delivers the same quixotic pubescent angst expressed in ‘Teen Spirit’ and ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’. Combined with the invitation (which Lauren delivers with a whimsically teasing smile)
‘You wanna be mine?
And just mine?
You wanna be mine?”
are a whole load of reasons why the prospective lover ought to be legging it fast as they can in the opposite direction. Lauren proudly confides…
‘I’m confusing all the people i meet
the most abused one being me
i try to stop but my fire is red
and your dead, and your dead, and your dead’
And it’s hardly surprising when the chorus changes to the assertion
‘But i cannot, give it all
and i cannot, give it all’
before bouncing back once more to the hope that the love-object may still be up for seduction, with the question framed by the song title.
Among the set list is also the wickedly enticing song ‘My Toy’ about a willing but silent lover. With witty lines like
‘He tries to get inside my head
my experimental love i said
please clean the mess up in my head
my red is blue and my blue is red, red
Is my, my sick affection
hurting you’
there’s no question here that we’re not talking about a cosy kind of relationship you would introduce to your mother. You might be excused for being a being a bit freaked out by the lines like
‘while im with you know to keep your
mouth closed when im with you know
how much i love you
don’t you?
take it all from me..’
If sung by a man, these lines might lead to allegations of sexism – but then there’s a lyric about a plastic body and the title ‘My Toy’ and you really aren’t sure whether this is a track about a battery-powered friend or a breathing human being…
It’s hard to believe the singer and writer of these songs is an incredibly poised young woman is only 18, and from the way Hands Off Gretel work both on and off stage, you can detect that she provides a central point which is both stabilising and empowering for the four of them. But it doesn’t seem to be false modesty when Lauren explains that she much prefers being part of the band rather than its focus. ‘With the previous band it was all about me in interviews and photos and the songs, and to be honest, I got a bit sick of me. Now I see our current band more as a project which we’re all in together, ‘ Lauren says.
It’s important to recognise that Lauren isn’t the only woman in the band. While Laura may be less visible behind her drumkit, her powerful playing is central to the HOG sound. Quietly spoken, with an understated style that contrasts with Lauren’s green hair, short skirts, torn tights and oodles of eye make-up, Laura is every bit as focused on the band’s success, and you get a sense that there’s a very collaborative approach to the way songs are created. ‘Lauren puts together a new song and then brings it to us and we make it our own, make it belong to the whole band,’ Laura explains.
Laura also shares Lauren’s desire to show people what women can do musically. ‘I forget that being a female drummer isn’t the norm,’ she says, ‘I love to shove this in people’s faces’ when I’m on stage. A guy came up to me after one gig and said ”you’re a beast on drums” and that was really something…’
Laura
HOG’s website describes them as a ‘DIY ggrrrunge band’ and asked to describe themselves , all four band members play around with words like ‘fun, energetic, loud’ until Sean grabs an image that makes everyone round the table sit up. ‘We’re like racoons on cocaine,’ he announces.
‘Yeah – they may think we look cute, but as soon as they hear us roar they shit the bed,’ says bass-player Danny, who freely admits he’s basking in the glow of post performance adrenaline.
Danny
The band lists some of their influences as Bikini Kill, Nirvana, L7 and Babes in Toyland. And there’s also a definite New York Dolls influence in there, to my mind. When I ask HOG about their links with Riot Grrrl Lauren says ‘We’re based in grunge but not exactly grunge – it’s a more ambigious label. We’re into the anger and noise but Riot Grrrl had more of a political agenda – and we don’t have that.’
Sean who at 27 is the band’s oldest member agrees that they aren’t keen to be pigeon-holed by previous genres. ‘Our souls never set the alarm clock so we missed the 90s,’ he tells me with a sincerity that is both earnest and a cheerful piss-take – all at the same time.
You can’t help but think Lauren’s big-eyed baby-punk look must go down a storm with the Japanese market – but the band confesses that their biggest fanbase is online. ‘America, Brazil, Argentina and Germany – we have a really big following. People are really into their music there,’ Laura explains.
But what about their home town of Barnsley, I ask them.
‘I think Barnsley has a very big indie scene – and people feel safe there… so we’re seen as a bit strange,’ bass-player Danny says. But you can’t help feeling it’s a kind of ‘strange’ that HOG are very happy to be labelled with.
Last of all, I have to give a mention to the band’s especially cute merchandise. Designed by Lauren, who is the only member who doesn’t have a day job and is free to spend her time developing the band’s profile, it’s endearingly eye catching. And our photographer, who spent a long time chatting to the band’s manager (Lauren’s mother) would never forgive me if I didn’t tell you about it.
We have a rule on this website that reviews are meant to be balanced. However much you love a band you still have to find something you’re not so keen on. But rules are made for breaking – and if you’re looking for anything less than an eulogy, stop reading now.
However I did go with some trepidation – because pedestals are meant for falling off. Besides, I’d read the Guardian article back in January which described the Sea of Brass gig (where the band were joined on stage by Redbridge Brass Band) as ‘misguided’ and ‘more like a forced marriage’, with reviewer Ian Gittins left longing to see this ‘fantastically idiosyncratic band again minus their temporary playmates’.
If anything, the Long Division gig at Unity Works was reassuringly unspectacular. This was a gig about the music first and foremost and, for this terribly biased reviewer, it did nothing but deliver quality from start to finish. Apart from their familiar foliage (trees in pots on stage) and dramatic change of lighting colour schemes between tracks, there was none of the haunting background film of sea birds, Christmas tree lights and antler sets which have previously accompanied the band on stage.
Abi Fry
And while we are on the discussion of ‘spectacle’, is it sexist (especially from another woman) to comment on the wonderful theatricality of Abi Fry’s floor length black and white dress? This barefoot viola player who is the only member of the band not conventionally clad in jeans and shirt, may appear on the edge of the stage, but her presence is strongly felt through so many of the songs. The bane of photographers, she spins constantly, lost in the beauty of her own performance – the unmistakable sound which together with the cornet (played by Phil Sumner – also on keyboards) fronts so many of the band’s otherwise guitar-heavy tracks.
Phil Sumner
Oh – and I do like the guy with the flying hat and the hand drum (and please, please will someone tell me what his name is!). Stalking about on stage and occasionally standing on the heads of the photographers in the pit below, he has a childlike enthusiasm that’s hugely pleasing to watch.
The guy with the flying hat
Now that makes it sound like I’m not appreciative of the wonderful skills of the other band members – and believe me I am! I marvel at the way the original three members – brothers Jan Scott Wilkinson (vocals, guitar), and Neil Hamilton Wilkinson (bass guitar, vocals, guitar) and Matthew Wood (drums) have created such a distinctive feel with their music. Jan and Neil effortlessly swap places to front different songs – but the sound is always unmistakably BSP. Haunting, hectic, wild and immaculately under control at all times.
And this gig was definitely all about quality. Now in their twelfth year and very much the darlings of the music world (this middle-aged reviewer once gained a considerable number of Brownie points from a Radio1 presenter when she named BSP as one of her favourite bands), this was a consummate performance of a accomplished band – who still have a passion and a freshness about their music which communicates in bucket loads to their eager audiences.
The band don’t talk on stage. They simply perform. One minute the audience is waiting and then they’re on – and the venue is flooded by the haunting fragility of the opening of ‘Machineries of Joy’ – which builds into the understated but confident anthem to… well who knows what exactly, because it’s hard to pin down any of BSP’s lyrics too precisely. As a band who started their career with a song about the fear of drowning, you can never be quite sure where you stand with their eclectic take on the complicated matter of living. But there is something of an upbeat feel in the
‘You are a vision of extraordinary contortion
An athletic form of warm distortion
And the triumph’s yours, we lose again’
and you definitely want to believe the band when they assure us that
‘Help is on the way, help is on the way
Help is on the way, we all know’
(‘Help’ would undoubtedly be a withered Aran fisherman, in an ancient rowing boat who wouldn’t say anything, but expertly lever you out of the water with his oar…)
‘Apologies to Insect Life’ is another track that teases you for a moment – with a seemingly tentative start that has your nerve endings jangling, before it moves swiftly into a frenetic burst of drumming and guitars. This track – from their first album ‘The Decline of British Sea Power’ – is so taut that any minute you feel it might break through its boundaries… but as the tempo chops and changes – from frenetic to sudden slows – there’s a palpable tension that shows this track is always firmly under control. And as Sumner moves from keyboards to cornet, we are reminded that this is a superbly orchestrated song . The audience is already working themselves into a gentle frenzy.
‘Remember Me’ was ranked by a poll of Radio6 listeners as their number 9 favourite song of all time – between Johnny Cash ‘Hurt’ (8th) and Radiohead’s ‘There There’ (10th). This reviewer has long had it on her ‘tracks to be played at my funeral’ list, so all she’s going to say is that it didn’t disappoint. Although in some ways it did feel a bit soon to launch into this gloriously gloomy anthem about ageing and beginning to disappear
‘Until there’s nobody really there
Increment by increment
Increment by increment
Increment by increment’
because some of us like to keep our emotional powder dry for as long as we can, holding back our moments of wallowing in euphoric melancholia for later in the performance. Personally I will never be totally satisfied until BSP play ‘Remember Me’ for their finale encore. See – I have found something I wasn’t 100% happy with! )
‘Scottish Wildlife Experience’ is a rousing guitar track with a top note provided by the viola, but has never been one of my favourite BSP tracks. But the audience loved it and were going wild for more of this upbeat sound.
‘Blackout’ is one of those tracks that has the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end – and is for me quintessentially what BSP is all about. Lines like
‘For then you will have lost it all the last of this Island
As you Blackout
Blackout again
My love’
set to a plaintive, heart-shifting melody, are an open invitation to collapse into the painful splendour of this music, the sadness of our beautiful but tainted planet. And sure enough, the audience is floating on a tide of unredeemable longings, swaying and singing along to the bits of chorus they can manage. But you have to understand – BSP does this to you. They are experts at reaching in and grabbing you just where your soul is.
This reviewer is getting rather carried away in her efforts to get you to see just how meaningful this music is, and you might be forgiven for thinking that it’s BSP who are pretentious. But pretentiousness really isn’t something you can’t ever level at this particular band. Thought- provoking, passionate and inspired maybe – but never so polished or ‘up themselves’ that you start to question where the sincerity has gone to. This is mature music for mature audiences, who like to think about what they’re hearing. And don’t care if the songs are far too complex to sing along with.
The audience absolutely loved the performance of ‘No Lucifer’ – which is always a favourite. This equally uplifting anthem about armies, Sodom, Hitler Youth, ‘metal skull and bone’ still holds out the hope of
‘A Raleigh twenty, yeah!
A little lost roe deer,
The wind in your hair.’.
And the fragility of the lyrical questions ‘Is that what the future holds’ has a wistfulness that contrasts strongly with the full throttle chanting of ‘easy, easy’ which the rest of the band takes up. This could be football terraces or a General inspecting his troops, but we’re all past caring. We are eating out of the band’s hands and we’re wherever they want us to be…
‘We’re All Waving Flags’ is a pulse-stirring anthem to welcome Eastern European immigrants – focusing on the joys of sharing beer and Czech ecstasy. It combines the gleeful lines
‘Beer is not death,
beer is not life,
It just tastes good
especially tonight’
with the profoundly caustic assertion that
‘And it’s all a joke,
Oh, it’s all a joke’.
and you can’t help but think the joke is on anyone who wants to read anything too profound into this cheerfully tolerant song.
‘Carrion’ is an old-favourite but the band still plays it with the vigour and freshness of a new track and the crowd goes wild. Involving the viola, two keyboards and our friend in the flying hat with the hand drum, this ballad of ‘brilliantine mortality’ is another track about the tensions between the natural and manmade world – focusing this time on the sea itself. With fabulous lines like:
‘Can stone and steel and horses’ heels ever explain the way you feel,
From Scapa flow to Rotherhithe,
I felt the lapping of an ebbing tide’.
it’s hard to believe with all their focus on water that BSP were originally called British Air Powers – and only changed their name after their club night in Brighton, called Club Sea Power, became so popular. It’s more like a tidal wave in the front row where the audience are jumping wildly – and one over enthusiastic person has already been detained from scrambling across the photographer’s heads to reach the band on stage.
When Ursa Ultra (a human in a bear costume) appears among the audience there’s a visible ripple of disappointment. This 8-foot high, cuddly but somewhat unnerving, mascot is always a sign that the gig is winding towards a close. And sure enough the band leave the stage – and the audience wait patiently for the encore….which the band deliver with an especially haunting performance of their song ‘Lately’. This isn’t a track I’ve ever raved about when it plays on my iPod but it’s something that works especially well on stage, as it aptly swells to meet both the size of the venue and the audience’s expectations.
The band finish with ‘A Rock’ – a track which doesn’t especially top my ratings, but always seems to go down a storm with BSP audiences. Watching the enthusiasm with which they play, I’m reminded of 17/18 year olds giving it their all at their first big stadium performance… and you just can’t help love this band for everything they deliver to their audiences.
British Sea Power is a band which never lets you stay in one mood for very long. Just as their music moves from the haunting melodies of lonely fishing villages, fierce beats of battlefields and musings on self-obliteration, through to the anthem-like feel of songs about drinking and waving flags, BSP’s repertoire embraces every aspect of what it takes to be human. Everything is bitter-sweet – everything moves from stillness to hyperactivity – gulls soar above oil rigs and armies march relentlessly. People drown, get old and oil spills happen on windswept beaches… But somehow we’re never asked to get down about this. There’s a fierce resilience in the music that says, there will still be perfect cloud formations at sunset and dancing bears at the end of the performance.
British Sea Power are a six-piece band variously originating from Cumbria, Yorkshire, Ealing and Shropshire and are currently based in East Sussex and on the Isle Of Skye.
Yan Scott Wilkinson – vocals/guitar
Neil Hamilton Wilkinson – vocals/bass/guitar
Martin Noble – guitar/keyboards
Matthew Wood – drums
Abi Fry – viola/keyboards
Phil Sumner – keyboards/cornet/guitar
The story of this Cleethorpes’ indie trio seemed to have come to an end back in 2011. After two albums – 2008’s debut ‘Shop Local’ and 2010’s ‘Passion, Pain and Loyalty’ – and several years touring the length and breadth of the UK, the band grew increasingly frustrated with being overlooked by the music industry and decided to call it a day.
After only a year of retirement Orphan Boy found themselves thrust back under the spotlight in 2012, when Tom Clarke of The Enemy tweeted about recently discovering them, and then offered them a support slot for a gig in Manchester. From there the band have returned to the live circuit and have used every spare minute to write and record this, their third, album. The original three members (Rob Cross on guitar/vocals, Paul ‘Smithy’ Smith on bass and Chris Day on drums) have now added a fourth, Sam Carlton on keyboards, to broaden their sound.
The album is an ode to life in the small towns that are scattered across the north, places such as the band’s seaside home of Cleethorpes, and as such is filled with references to and even sounds from those places. The opening track begins with the familiar sound of an ice cream van’s siren call before ‘Beats Like Distant Tides’ kicks in properly with a driving drum beat which is swiftly joined by shimmering guitar and a dancing bass line. Rob Cross’s vocals are strong but with a hint of vulnerability – a mix of Alex Turner’s northern twang and Brett Anderson’s dramatic wail. When Cross sings of rain clouds hanging above him and a lost hunger, the sense of yearning in the song is clear and understood.
The music on this album is epic, rousing indie-rock with an aching melancholy laced throughout. The sort of indie sound once produced by bands like James. Indeed Cross even sounds like a young Tim Booth on tracks like ‘Clover’ and ‘From the Provinces’. On the latter track, Cross calls out to the towns on the outskirts, the places so often overlooked. Over Carlton’s MGMT-like keyboard riff, Scunthorpe, Redcar, Doncaster and Morcambe are name-checked amongst others. The naming of the towns is perhaps a little too on the nose for this reviewer- but the track’s exuberance prevails.
Cross has been quoted as saying: ‘I’ve always liked the idea of seeing the beauty in the mundane’ and that idea is best articulated on the track ‘On a Nelson Skyline’. Apparently inspired by the view from a Grimsby tower block, the song gives a hazy reflection on what a day in the life is like there. Cross’s lyrics take on a poetic quality here and his guitar playing is both restrained and melodic. The smooth backing vocals and reverb-drenched saxophone that appear late on in the song serve to reinforce the song’s woozy feel.
Another standout track ‘Transpennine’, sounds like it’s meant to be heard live at a festival. From a quiet reflective start it breaks out into a stirring mid-section with Cross’s echoing guitar and the pounding rhythm supplied by Smith and Day, before coming back down to a murmur at the end. A perfect musical representation of the train journey it lovingly describes.
Cross’s lyrical skills are showcased again on the final track, ‘Thirtysomething Lovesick Ballad’. The words are laid bare in a spoken verse which brings to mind classic Pulp. Lines like ‘They stretch for miles up this north-east coast, those chemical plants just hang like ghosts over a pale industrial sky’ are delivered with a snarl that betrays the singer’s ongoing battle with his competing feelings of frustration and affection for his home town – and the many others just like it.
One criticism would be that the songs sometimes tread a too-familiar path both lyrically and musically. It can sound overly similar with certain grooves permeating the record and therefore slightly diminishing the impact. However, it’s a small flaw in an otherwise great album filled with potential hits and sure-to-be live favourites. Based on the sheer quality of the songs on ‘Coastal Tones’ it’s very clear that this is a group ready to make the big splash they deserve.
Flurries of descending notes that put me in mind of The Party of Helicopters’ ‘The Good Punk‘, are punctuated with the kind of ‘surprise’ added beats that bands like Soundgarden made their trademark.
The first of several neck-jerk transitions prods you into a brief hail shower of musical ‘stabs’, executed by the band in unison – à la The Mars Volta’s career-opening ‘Son et Lumiere’.
Machine’s five-minute plus duration allows for several such acute developments – not surprising for a song in the prog tradition. Perhaps, if some of FWF’s forebears had possessed their unbridled sense of invention, ‘prog’ would not be the dirty word it now is for some…
The single, and its equally captivating B-side – the splendidly titled ‘Let the Commencement Beginulate’ – show a band reveling in the pursuit of instrumental and songwriting exploration and, in these days of brain rot pop, it’s a joy to hear.
Fields is a band that embraces its guitar, bass and drums lineup, with bassist Bru Cousins and guitarist Adam Cooper sharing vocal duties. Personally, I preferred the more restrained passages of singing, and felt that the more forceful moments might have benefited from a soupçon more reverb to sit them more comfortably in the mix. That said, the lo-fi production bestows Machine with the kind of ‘warts and all’ charm, flaunted by The White Stripes at their bluesy best.
While I’ve referenced numerous American touchpoints here, Fields Without Fences’ sound is peculiarly British, with an admirable sense of drama that – in a really good way – conjured up thoughts of Jeff Wayne’s ‘The War of The Worlds’, albeit without the BBC Radio Theatre-esque politeness. (There’s little danger of Gary Barlow covering ‘Machine’ any time soon!)
A sense of ironic wit pervades the song too – as in the resigned acceptance of the final couplet: ‘Welcome to the machine; it’s crushing you’
I, for one, hope Fields Without Fences resolve their current drummer-less-ness before long, as I’d love to hear ‘Machine’ live. I’ve no doubt the rest of their set would be equally satisfying for anyone with a liking for rock, prog, or just well-played, exciting and thought-provoking music. In the meantime, visit Fields’ Facebook page to buy ‘Machine’ or direct from the Bandcamp embed below.
