| CD REVIEW Los Campesinos! |
 |
|
Band : Los Campesinos! In spite of their bandname, none of the members of UK’s Los Campesinos! (meaning “the peasants” or even “country people”) have any Spanish lineage. In fact, they were founded by the trio of Neil (guitar), Ellen (bass) and Ollie (drums) in early 2006 as a means to have something fun to do, while they were attending Cardiff University. Funnily enough, neither of them nor any of the members that were to join later (in order of joining: lead guitarist/ songwriter Tom, glockenspiel player/ singer Gareth, violinist/ keyboardist Harriet, singer/ keyboard & melody horn player Aleksandra), is from Wales! According to the band (no recordings are known to exist to proove it) the earliest songs were lengthy Post-Rock pieces. Playing their first gig at a student night on May 8, 2006, the band went on to play an increasing amount of gigs in the Cardiff area, and went on to record an early 5-track demo which was posted on the Internet. It earned the band airplay on BBC Radio 1 Wales’ Beth & Huw evening program, and with continuously growing reputation, the band got a support slot with Canadian supergroup Broken Social Scene in August. It also got ‘em discovered by Wichita, who signed the band in November, but allowed the band the time to finish their high school studies before having to work on a full-length release. In the meantime, sóme studio work already delivered the release of a double A-side single featuring new songs “We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives” and “Don’t Tell Me To Do The Math(s)” on February 26, 2007. It was followed by the limited edition 7-inch single “You! Me! Dancing!” in June. Both singles (produced by Broken Social Scene collaborator Dave Newfeld) were compiled as Sticking Fingers Into Sockets, and released by Canadian label Arts & Crafts (to which the band had signed in April for the distribution of their material in North-America) in July. To coincide with their full-blown UK tour which started in mid-October, the band released a 3rd single titled The International Tweexcore Underground. The band’s full-length debut album Hold On Now, Youngster… arrived in British shops on February 25, 2008 (US on April 1 – no fishy remarks here!), and saw the British press divided into camps. With some lauding it, leading magazine NME only gave the album a 6/10 rating, praising its musicality but critisizing its cohesiveness. Undaunted, the band embarked on both a European ànd a North American tour in support of of the album. In late October, the band followed up their debut full-length with the limited edition 10-song We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, which they consider an “Extended EP” for contractual and artistic reasons. Romance Is Boring was recorded during several sessions (the second half of the North American tour in between) in Stamford, Connecticut with John Goodmanson, and completed in June 2009. That same month it was announced that Aleksandra wanted to go back to her studies, and therefore left the band. Gareth’s sister Kim would take over her position in the band as keyboardist & singer in September (meanwhile I’ve also notice the addition of one Rob “Sparky Deadcap” to the line-up…probably to provide the occasional horns Aleks used to be responsible for as well), and at the end of that month the band premiered the first single off the album, “There Are Listed Buildings”.The song was almost immediately voted #1 in the 2009 Festive Fifty list by listeners of Dandelion Radio. Your interest just might be sparked now, and that would be rightfully so! For Los Campesinos! Play a very nice kind of music, which has the listened cloistered to their music installation. In fact, the album has had me personally stuck to the point that I’ve already started this review twice, but interrupted the writing proces each time in order to be able to spend more time wiith it. What’s all the fuzz about, you may wonder? Well, on their MySpace page the band may introduce itself as a hybrid of Pop, Indie, and Punk, but I see things much broader than that. There’s songs where two guitarists play against each other in counterpoint melodies as compared to the rest of the band, bringing a layered complexity to the fore. Then, there’s other songs (let’s call ‘em the “Pop” geared ones) where melodies of all instruments involved flow wonderfully together, but still with a layered quality. On top, many of the songs get a layered vocal approach on top! Lyrically, Tim seems to draw mostly from a post-adolescent’s sexuality point of view…the whole done in a typical English accent which is simply to-die-for! As far as influences, the band posted quite a list of (contemporary) bands…but somehow Talking Heads is nót one of them, which is weird, because the moment I noticed their mentioning in one of the songs, everything fell in place for me! Oh well, maybe you’d better get acquainted with this band’s freakiness yourself, and go listen to the 3 songs posted at myspace.com/loscampesinos (two of the songs can also be enjoyed through video – scroll down the page to find ‘em). If that tickled your fancy, you might be pleaseed to know that the band is cruising through Europe with Copy Halo during March, including gigs in Holland (Amsterdam’s Melkweg on the 14th) and Belgium (Brussel’s Rotonde on the 18th). For our North-American readers, the band is out your-aways starting April 20th (for more details, check their MySpace or normal webspace loscampesinos.com). Of course you could also go out to your local record store, and try to get a closer listening of the album there, but be warned: Los Campesinos! Music is highly infectuous, and once you’re contaminated, you may not want to live without. In fact, I guarantee you’ll pay what’s necessary with a smile on your face! 98/100 Tony. |