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| About the bands, in their own words
Compute Compute believes that the recipe to happiness looks something like
this: Sure, there's more to it, but this is a good starting point. Picture copyright Nadia Frantsen Wallpaper Silhouettes started out where every band of young hopefuls does, in the boys room. Whether it was that particular room (it might have been the wooden walls) or the duo's latent pessimism that led them onto the path of the ignored and misunderstood, who's to say? But one thing is certain; they did not make music, nor was it ever their intentions to do so. Instead they tried, in a very natural way, to create something they might have seen as a greatly missed input in the musical area today; namely "atmosphere". Journey through their large back catalogue of 4-track tapes and you might discover why it is fair to sound so pretentious! On the other hand, their back catalogue isn't accessible so that leaves you with only one word and a reason to shout it out very loud. Bastards! They've had their disputes with the local rock society, the occasional drunk getting up on stage to yell through the microphone, the regular "tour-and-sleep-in-the-car" cliché and so on. But there is one thing that the studio trio/live quartet has yet to accomplish; to sign with another label (other than their own) that not only expresses vague comments like; "Yes! We have a deal, we'll release your album!" but who takes it all one step further and actually act on that comment. Which is the case with Freedom Road Records... Those steadfast quotes:
nervous_testpilot is exempt from the rusty shackles of genre. He spits deliriously in the leering face of classification and then goes home to cook dinner. Welding synthesizers and a deft musical touch like a welding torch designed to weld synthesizers and deft musical touches, nervous_testpilot produces music that sounds like androids on crack talking to other androids on crack whilst you're on crack on a space station powered by crack in space.
Picture copyright Brightside Photography undertheigloo are a four piece from Oxford. Their music has taken in many genres to produce something truly special. Having nurtured a dynamic writing enviroment which affords them the ability to experiment, as well as posessing the confidence to challenge conventional song writing, they consistently produce material of breathtaking beauty that refuses to be pigeonholed but is genuinely accessible. As on record their live show mixes intricate drums, hypnotic bass, soaring guitars and effortless vocals to mesmerising effect. They naturally integrate keyboards and laptop-based sampling to open up near limitless sonic possibilities. Their fundamental commitment to writing and performing has won them much praise, and gives them strong foundations upon which to grow into the national arena and beyond. The band has spent the last few months independently recording its debut album with Jef Clayton. All instruments were recorded during a fortnight in an isolated lake district cottage and vocals have been recorded subsequently in their own studio. Artwork copyright Brightside Photography Harlette are a young, loud, mental, all-girl band from Oxford who like face paints Following on from the self-released 'A Bunch Of Girls' EP in 2004 and tracks on the 'a catholic education' and 'Under 18 Only' compilations, Harlette release their first output of 2006 in the form of the 'Don't Call Me Creepy' EP. Here are some opinions from people who know better: "... they may be young, but somehow they can remember when Riot Grrl was a major force in contemporary music. There are plenty of distorted guitars, screeched vocals ('Sometimes She Pisses Me Off' is a particular highlight) and frantic drumming that brings to mind Babes In Toyland. Singer Iona brims with a brattish confidence that brings to mind Molly Ringwald in The Breakfast Club, if The Breakfast Club had been soundtracked by Huggy Bear and not Simple Minds. Their confidence speaks for itself." Nightshift again, this time on the Oxford Wheatsheaf show, July 05. The Evenings formed in Oxford in late 2001 as a studio project, recording the "Let's Go" album in early 2002. For the next 18 months the band eased into live performance with a different lineup at every show, the keyboard and rhythm skills of eeebleee's Mark Wilden and Sexy Breakfast's Philip Oakley and Sebastian Reynolds always at its core. In this time the band gained a reputation for flamboyant stage performances, enlisting the help of dancers The Uninvited Guest, video artists Memetix and Kazimier 22 and performers from a wide range of Oxford based musical and artistic sources, headlining the Oxford Punt and launching the "Firefighters" and "Dying" EPs. By late 2003 the band's lineup was beginning to solidify into the shape it takes today: the permanent additions of Sunnyvale Noise Sub-Element's Stuart Fowkes, eeebleee's Jo Edge and Anonymen's drummer Luigi Cibrario have allowed The Evenings to develop from an exuberant carnival experience into a tighter musical outfit - the next few months saw the band supporting the likes of Trans Am, The Rock of Travolta and The Faint as well as serving breakfast to a packed crowd at 2004's Truck Festival. The Evenings have garnered comparisons to acts as diverse as Squarepusher, Neu!, David Bowie, Aphex Twin, Ian Dury and The Blockheads, The Polyphonic Spree, Boards of Canada, Daft Punk, Future Pilot AKA, The Flaming Lips and Ultravox. October 2004's "Listening" EP contains their most assured work yet, and with live shows getting bigger and better all the time The Evenings are going from strength to strength. Over the past three years the band have been accumulating remixes of tracks from the "Let's Go" album by local artists and those from further afield. Finally these have been collated into the fifteen track album that sees the light of day in August.
Picture copyright Rich Whitelock Pretty much everything Ash writes has some kind of a cinematic reference, and for this reason you'd probably call him a widescreen composer. He's influenced by Bladerunner-era Vangelis, Hans Zimmer, Thomas Newman, Venus Hum, Amina, Mira Condo and anything melodic and evocative in a similar vein. I'm Sorry, I'm Lost is a collection of songs written between 1998 and 2006 and comprises songs written with his Johnny Cash-loving Drama lecturer Jon Hyde and epic instrumentals built from recordings of masses of singing nuns at Notre Dame. The accompanying Kamikaze Eyes EP will be self-released by Ash at Truck festival (with an official release pending on Freedom Road later in the year) and contains five brand new tracks; Kamikaze Eyes, Alien, Euphoria, Elegy for M and Ave Maria. Freedom Road Records will be releasing the Ash Verjee album "I'm Sorry, I'm Lost" on Monday the 28th of August 2006. Click here to visit the Ash Verjee website. Lucky Lucky Pigeons are the three Swedish girls Amna Maksumic, Hanna Olsson and Elin Pärsson. About a half year ago, in November 2005, they thought about maybe starting a band or something. They started Lucky Lucky Pigeons, named after their favourite bird and two weeks after their first rehearsal they had their first gig. Since they couldn't play more than two songs and the audience really liked them they had to play them twice! It was awesome. In the following months they rehearsed a lot and wrote new songs. In February they bought their drum machine, Artee. He started to play the bass too since their bass guitarist got tired of it. In March they participated in the big Swedish music competition "Musik Direkt" and they got chosen to play in the final of Dalarna. In April, they started to record their first EP, which was released in Sweden in June and by Freedom Road Records in the rest of the world in August. Freedom Road Records will be releasing the Lucky Lucky Pigeons EP "Happy Birds Day" on Monday the 28th of August 2006. Click here to visit the Lucky Lucky Pigeons website.
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