British Sea Power

- jerry lee lewis marries his twelve year old retarded sister (or something)

- milli vanilli can't sing as badly as they'd made out

- someone is someone's brother

phew, thanks for uncovering that one. looks like i'll have to get a mind of my own when it comes to music from now on! apparently atomic kitten don't play their own instruments either and geri halliwell isn't actually 19.

except british sea power. who, despite the fact that they force 6 year olds to eat glass, are all lovely himbos with great songs. i especially like the last one they do, the best 20 minutes i ever spent.

British Sea Power are not worth following. BSP your 15 seconds of fame are up.

I've been played their single on repeated occasions by 3 different people. I'll be darned if I can remember a note of what they actually sounded like. This does not bode well.

real i am yoda. and friends many i have too are.

do what you like and like what you do?

you won't stop me going to see them on thursday.

I'm not Roy - he doesn't like me.

having said that there are a couple of songs on the new album that could break them through.

New album out in about 10 days.

It's really good.

I can't wait!!

“The aim of this record is to have Poles dancing with Slovaks, Romanians dancing with the Welsh, Arsene Wenger dancing with Alex Ferguson and everyone singing this song. We’re better together than we are apart – all together and nice and drunk. The East is maybe the future of all of us lot in the West, so long live the mighty power-chords of trans-national rock music.”

There is not nearly enough pretentious wankery in music these days. I love it.

But it has football references - wahey!

New album: great songs, hampered by poor use of "bookending tracks" concept.

I'm not dancing with no Slovak.

Not even if they Pole dance?

Kind of boring on the first two listens, I really liked the pristine melodic sound they went for with the last record but this one seems to have too much bluster and too little that's actually memorable.

Enjoying this a lot off a distracted listen in the office.

I dunno, I kind of agree with the Observer review from yesterday. All their reviews start off going 'Plants onstage! Songs about glaciers! They're so interesting!' but the music is so generic and uninspried.

Agreed. They have always promised more than they can deliver.

I asked Yan to explain his "The East is maybe the future of all of us lot in the West" quote (for it was he who said it), and this was his reply:

"Oh…! [guilty laughter] What would I mean… mm-hmm… I think it’s possibly that we’ve had quite a long run of new ideas and changing things dramatically. Maybe it’s time to swap over, and take ideas from the other end of the spectrum. Eastern Europe is a place that’s changing a lot, and modernising. Maybe they’ll do it in a slightly better way, if we pay attention. And then there’s the East of China or whatever, which is obviously economically the future of the world. Always East, yeah…"

Have I mentioned that I used to know one of them when I/he lived in Reading? Look at me, I'm a regular Suzy!

Loved the early singles and the first album, got a bit bored with them at Truck in 2003 when their set went on a bit too long and everything seemed a bit too rehearsed. Listened to the second album once and didn't like it generic and uninspired otm. I want to hear the new one, but every review is still all Arcade Fire and Editors-referencing. Is it? I saw Open Season in Fopp for £3 recently and I stil couldn't be bothered with it. Maybe they're a band I should just abandon to 18months of my life that were pretty good but I'm not going back there.

My initial reaction to reading that (your comment; not seen Observer review) was an indignant "but they're NOT generic and uninspired!", but given five seconds of through I think, perhaps, that they are pretty generic, and that, actually, that's kind of what I like about them - they are an inky indie band with a few little character quirks (that could be seen as conceits) and nice little tunes about odd little things. The thing is that I think what they do, they do with real care and attention, and that's what appeals to me; sure, the 'bookend tracks' thing might be a bit gauche in 2007, but I also think it shows that they care about the idea of making 'an album' that you listen to in order, and stuff. I think sonically they're (while far from perfect) very good too, and a serious cut above most semi-mainstream 'indie' (where 00s indie is just 'guitar rock', obv.). I've only listened to this on my work comp so far, but looking at the recording and production credits I'm confident that it'll open up really nicely on the big rig or headphones at home, too.

But the key thing for me about them, and this might sound either mental or genius, is the tunes; without sounding like Geir, I think they've got amazing melodies - not in the way I think Beatles melodies are amazing, or Embrace melodies (love or hate them, I think Danny's an awesome melodicist even if he can't sing), but there's something really understated about a lot of their tunes, especially on the second album, that I adore. A Wooden Horse and The Lonely off the first album, too. Not just the melodies, but... I really like the sense of momentum and... narrative, almost, that their tunes have at their best. Just a really simple, little, nothingness song like Like A Honeycomb off the last album, I just find really heartwarming and beautiful. I listened to the last album a lot while walking coastal paths in Devon, and it was amazing.

Also, if they're generic, who else is in their genre? What genre are they generic of? Because there aren't many bands that I know of who are doing something all that similar; you can't lump them in with Kaiser Chiefs or The Killers or Hard-Fi, and they're nothing like Guillemots or Patrick Wolf either. Yeah, they're 'just' an indie band, but who else is, these days? They're not a date-rape stadium rock band in disguise, they're not AOR piano ballads with delusions...

X-posts there - my response is to MatDC.

I like all their work so far, looking forward to the new one. I agree with Sicky's summary - for me, they represent the best of indie rock.

One of the best things they ever did, though, was a collaboration with The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa on "A Lovely Day Tomorrow"/

i like this album quite a bit

fancy that

Also, if they're generic, who else is in their genre? What genre are they generic of?

It's the Big And Important, Standing On A Cliff Top Looking Windswept And Earnest genre: Bombasto-Indie!

The most striking reference point on DYLRM? is Arcade Fire, which is understandable given that the initial sessions took place over two or three months in Montreal, working with AF drummer Howard Bilerman (and Efrim Menuck from Godspeed You! Black Emperor). But we could also loosely lump them in with Doves, Editors, Electric Soft Parade, Brakes, Bloc Party, the rockier stuff from the last Athlete album, etc...

See I don't get the "big and important" vibe off them AT ALL; maybe it's cos I liked the second album best, and that was "small and insignificant in the face of gazing at the sea from the clifftop" (literally how Im listened to it a lot).

(I actually really like the second album for what its worth, its this one that I found dull)

I didn't get on with this one as well as I'd thought I would when I got home last night, actually - this may just be that I had a fucking mental busy weekend and was too tired to really take it in, however. The second one took ages to grow on me, apart from the two Sutton produced tracks.

I think a lot of the reaction to this record, all the "oh my gosh they're totally gonna get a top ten single off this" hype talk indie blog nonsense, is the fact that it's January and there's fuck-all else to get excited about. The single got to 31.

Whereas I've suddenly started coming round to it! It's taken a good half a dozen plays, though.

disclaimer: i love this band with an undying and unquestionable passion.

interesting that some people would regard them with a "big and important" viewpoint (which i assume is meant negatively). like nick i don't get this at all--in fact it's that they write songs about such inconsequentialities that gives a sense of huge scale; as weird as this sounds i think of the scale of BSPs songs as being a lateral "you can see for miles" landscape than a more upwards, spacelike/cosmic scale you'd more commonly get.

the songs are taking the mundane and making them sound fantastical; i.e. there's no pretension of "big and important"--the songs themselves are bigger than the band.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7209121.stm

http://i30.tinypic.com/2hg48c9.jpg

I was trying to figure out where I'd heard the name Phil Sumner before. Then I was "watching" (i.e. half asleep on the couch) Hetty Wainthropp Investigates on TV over Christmas and it turns out that he plays the cornet on the theme tune. So he should know better than to indulge in tired old stage diving antics!

The Great Skua, the instrumental track off the new album, REALLY REMINDS ME of something; it's almost identical at points but I can't quite place it. Any ideas?

PULP / roadkill

Yeah? Thats not setting alarm bells off. What album's it from? It's something in the guitar progression on The Great Skua, I think.

intro sounds for all the world like roadkill (last pulp album WE LOVE LIFE) but yeah also very generic-y sounding arcade fire type guitar sound. or something shoegazey.

Nothing that I can place, but can I just point out the similarity between "Atom" and Buzzcocks' "Everybody's Happy Nowadays"....

N.B. Weirdly considering my usual antipathy to This Kind Of Thing, DYLRM? has become my second favourite album of the year to date.

Yeah? I'm still not feeling it much, certainly not compared to the previous record, which I still love a lot.

I totally cained it for a few weeks in January but haven't listened much since. It is very good though, certainly better than Open Season for my money. Still tremendous live too.

I am quite enjoying MAN OF ARAN!

I heard The Great Skua in a trailer on Sky Sports last night. Epic. Haven't heard Man Of Aran - what's it like?

They have this annoying habit of releasing b-sides on vinyl-only. I had no idea they did an unironic cover of "I Am A Cider Drinker" and a nifty 10" for "No Lucifer". Their latest is a cover of The Cure's "A Forest" which is solid.

I heckled them in concert requesting "I Am A Cider Drinker" and they glared at me. Wankers.

Anyway, I am enjoying their new EP which apparently is their offcuts from the next album.

They glare at everyone. It's ace, especially "hidden" track 8, Returning.

It's really different, isn't it? "Zeus" doesn't exactly feel cohesive but it's full of interesting aural excursions, not all of which work but all of which make you think, and are ultimately enjoyable. Frankly it reminded me alot of The Fall in terms of sheer experimentation and mixing brilliance with driving-off-the-cliff oddness.

It's what we call a "fun romp". Especially with a song like 'kW-h', which sounds atypical of them but is good!

They're at their best when they're pretending to be icelandicbandmum though, aren't they?

Ok, "Zeus" just keeps getting better and better with each play. Any lucky soul already heard the forthcoming "Valhalla Dancehall"? I'd hate to think these are the more interesting bits that didn't fit, leaving us with a more cohesive, safe, ultimately uninteresting record.

Ok, how is it that "Valhalla Dancehall" hasn't leaked yet?

^^^

british sea power: by white ppl, 4 white ppl

And that's a problem?

Can someone *explain* British Sea Power?

Sometimes quite like them - indeed, like the Man of Aran soundtrack a lot - but have a sense that I'm missing something.

Is there a socio-political angle that I'm missing aside from one of them birdwatches and they've appeared on Country File?

british sea power: by white ppl, 4 white ppl

white haters gonna hate white people

ghostface h8r, 4real

is it true that british sea power is basically drownedinsound indie but with extra references to the hebrides, obscure fauna, naval history etc?

It is not true.

is it true that british sea power is basically drownedinsound indie but with extra references to the hebrides, obscure fauna, naval history etc?

Oh, fuck off.

true ime

there needs to be a bsp vs iliketrains poll amirite

actually quite looking forward to hearing this new stuff. y'all have gotten me interested. only really 'carrion' and 'lately' have really caught my attention of the bsp i've heard

is it true that british sea power is basically drownedinsound indie but with extra references to the hebrides, obscure fauna, naval history etc?

Yes this is exactly what they are. They're occasionally pretty good at it (Carrion, most of the second album) and often ropey (the whole third album by and large). Their music isn't as distinctive as the rest of their aesthetic.

I guess if you're determined to be cloth eared then that's your call but DiS and BSP don't really see eye to eye given that DiS has an American/P4k garage rock/lo fi/Williamsburg leaning aesthetic.

yeah DiS is basically P4k-in-Englande-but-with-more-dubstep if we're being reductive

although British indie still does pretty well on the messageboards (wouldn't have thought BSP are a band everyone would bang on about though - they're a bit too austere and subtle)

2nd track of the EP is really good :)

Maybe I'm working on an outdated definition of Drownedinsound indie. They were very Brit-centric around 02-05, ie the period encompassing the first few BSP records.

Indie has kinda fragmented since then. Yer xxes and James Blakes and whatnot are the hot new electronic sound and guitar-rock while fondly regarded in some quarters has been marginalised by its own dissipation from that (tiresome) 00's centrality

hence, I predict some pretty exciting things coming out of British guitar rock in the early part of this decade, possibly by re-integrating electronic sounds and textures into something more progressive and wild (he hopes)

Like...BSP have survived through their period of trend conformity, which is why I expect them to get much more interesting now - they're on their own now, in a way

Brighton buddies ESP meanwhile have realised their time is up as ESP, and Thomas White is now free to make the music he wants to make, which is miles better than ESP ever was (yeah, really) although there's still Brakes, hovering, somewhere (I don't suppose they've got too much left in the tank although perhaps they will evolve!)

'Bear' is awwwwwwesome

like, if that's an outtake...

but then all of Suede's best songs were b-sides

ok this EP is by a *country mile* the best thing BSP have ever done, beyond any scintilla of doubt

is there some way SNA can say after a thread title "22 New Answers (but it's acoleuthic and nakhchivan so don't bother)"?

would significantly improve my ilx experience. thx.

</3

Yeah, God forbid we should actually have to read posts by someone who seems to know what he's talking about... getting in the way of all the toe-curlingly unfunny 'zings'.

yer gang never did get back to me about subediting btw, I think my Salem comment must've done for me :P

Yeah, God forbid we should actually have to read posts by someone who seems to know what he's talking about... getting in the way of all the toe-curlingly unfunny 'zings'.

― Carl Jung Jeezy (Doran), Tuesday, December 14, 2010 12:38 PM

this post has incredible layers. i mean, at its simplest, it works as a subtle but strained zing on acoleuthic. but then if you take it at face value it has this great irony with Doran claiming that acoleuthic knows what he's talking about - which you can make an argue against in general but in this specific context he basically admits he doesn't know the band well, and then affirms that with what he says about the EP - so Doran himself doesn't know what he's talking when he talks about someone knowing what they talk about. and THEN you have the self-referential loop of the unfunny 'zings' part, where it is either an unfunny zing against me, or at the most generous reading, possibly at acoleuthic.

it's like an Escher painting. magnificent.

dude I think you should go for a bracing walk + get some air

extra references to the hebrides, obscure fauna, naval history etc?

This is what I like about them . . .

have now decided upon listening to 'man of aran' that 'the south sound' might be their thus-far pinnacle

it's certainly the best thing GY!BE have put out in a while

Arf! You watching the film or just listening to the soundtrack? The full experience is a thing of beauty.

We put them on at Union Chapel in London. It really was something.

I'm just listening to the soundtrack! It's lovely but yeah I really want to see the whole thing. I take it in that church in Norway they played it live to a video-screening? If so, awesome.

Sorry to have missed out on that - next time I'll be along. Have heard wonderful things about the live-show and clearly the music's getting better and better.

Valhalla Dancehall has finally leaked, release on 1-1-11

Tracklisting:
"Who’s In Control" - 3:14
"We Are Sound" - 4:47
"Georgie Ray" - 3:48
"Stunde Null" - 2:39
"Mongk II" - 4:49
"Luna" - 4:17
"Baby" - 5:47
"Living Is So Easy" - 4:01
"Observe The Skies" - 3:23
"Cleaning Out The Rooms" - 7:11
"Thin Black Sail" - 1:46
"Once More Now" - 11:14
"Heavy Water" - 3:42

finally leaked, release on 1-1-11

leakers need to be more on the ball than this

Agreed! But wisely they released a limited edition with a bonus EP so I already ordered it. But listening sooner is better than later!

Very keen again.

what's that 11-minute one like [/very much in character]

Find out yourself - http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/jan/05/british-sea-power-valhalla-dancehall-exclusive

But anyway, having really liked the debut, loved the second album, and been non-plussed by the last (proper) album, I'm really, really enjoying this, and inspired to go out and get Zeus and Man of Aran.

I suspect you'll love the production and mastering on Man of Aran, at the very least. It's got a disclaimer on the CD about the high dynamic range, FFS.

Aye, I dunno why I didn't get it when it came out.

Just one listen to the new one has allayed my fears that it's the dull side to the stunning "Zeus". They've really hit their peak, hope they come play the US!

Loving this. http://sickmouthy.wordpress.com/2011/01/10/thalassophobia/

Nick, I've enjoyed your writing for years ever since your Soulseeking pieces for Stylus. This was a great article about a great album, expressing things I have a hard time capturing in words. Good on yer!

And, yeah, "Valhalla Dancehall" will easily be in my top 10 (were I to compile one) by the end of the year, doubtless.

the first song (lead gtr and chord progession, at least) definitely owes a lot to pixies' letter to memphis.

Cheers Gerald.

yah this is a lovely record (and nice writeup NS!)

out today and i think i'm going to get this.

good stuff Nick!

Nick, you've pretty much neatly written up how and why to listen to BSP. I was waiting for someone to do that in a very fine fashion. Kthx!

Sea Power were on fire tonight. I hope everyone gets the chance to see them live this year.

Barents Sea, dude

i like this a ton. Cleaning Out The Rooms is p amazing.

the gratuitous u2 slams in reviews of this record are lame

The thing that annoys me most about the reviews of these albums is the false claim that all the songs sound the same, when, for starters Neil (Hamilton) Wilkinson's song writing has veered off into much more cosmic, experimental, introspective pastures new because of his isolation up in Skye (w. Abi Fry) and how it differs to the more rambunctious, hooky material that Scott (Yan) Wilkinson/Martin Noble are writing. And then there's the claim that they're dour... they're like the most fun guitar band ever, imo.

The band has always had a great (if oblique) sense of humour.

P4k describing "Cleaning Out The Rooms" as "turgid" is even more hilarious, though.

that is a great song, fu pfork

I think there's a really interesting push-me-pull-you dichotomy at the heart of BSP, a compulsive attraction to and simultaneous revulsion from modernity and society which is manifested in two very different ways by the two songwriting axes (as plural of axis; not 'hatchet'!). Hamilton seems to be retreating into rural reclusive stargazing blissout idyl, as John says, while Yan & Noble are becoming more socially (if not necessarily politically) and personally direct, rather than hiding behind abstraction / literary references / etc so much.

I've read a couple of interviews with them recently (the Quietus piece and maybe 2 others, actually) and 'entertainment' has been a key word in all of them.

Mentioning U2 in a BSP review should get you struck off.

Angles to use when writing up a BSP album review:

1. These guys are too serious.
2. I don't "get" their jokes.
3. ENGLISH ARCADE FIRE
4. If they're gonna put 'Dancehall' in the title, why oh why can't they actually release an album of Jamaican Dancehall/do a cover of Wang Chung's 'Dance Hall Days'.
5. They really want to be like U2, really. (Pitchfork only)
6. Heh, these guys still use guitars. (Not trying to be Rockist here, but it's a two-way street. These are white indie boys with guitars but they are quite interesting, alright?)

I liked (and still do like) this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Peo0s75QDR0

If the new one is like it, I will possibly like it as well.

Really really liking Valhalla and wondering if I need to go back and give their discography another go. I'd read the enthusiasm for the first do, but never got around to actually hearing them until Do You Like Rock Music?, which didn't excite me a whole lot. I picked up the new one, mainly because I came across a copy mere hours after reading Sick Mouthy's post. Such a fantastic album, but I feel as if I've only scratched the surface. It seems idiotic that people are quick to dismiss this as "U2-lite" or whatever. There are certainly moments that feel like BSP are reaching for the nosebleed seats, but each feels very earned and part of the overall flow of the album rather than a cheap shot. I don't know, this is the first unexpected pleasure of 2011 and I'm wondering where to go next.

"do" should be "two" in that second sentence

The first album is real good. The song Remember Me in particular.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Peo0s75QDR0

Apparently it is, since that same youtube was embedded in the last revive!

Yeah but a lot has changed in those two weeks.

Haha didn't mean that to be snarky! Honestly must be a well-loved song. If YouTube wasn't blocked at work I'd be checking it out right now.

The first album appeared with some really great b-sides, too. 'The Spirit of St. Louis' is kinda mental live:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLJl2k4kvPk

I SET TRENDS!!!

Fear of Drowning is another good one from the first record.

Carrion might be the best of them all, though.

The trio of releases (Zeus, Valhalla Dancehall, VIP EP) is still one of my favorite things from this year, very happy they put out every last track from these sessions. Delicate, driving, warm and bombastic, so impressive from one track to the next. How can they possibly follow it up?

With a book?

What's on the VIP EP?

i think we should ask noted British Sea Power fanatic lexpretend for his thoughts on the subject

I think you misspelled sickmouthy.

The VIP EP:

1 Let The Tears Roll 4:06
2 Lucky Bicycle 2:45
3 kW-h (Glitter) 5:24
4 Shit Factory 2:02
5 Luna (Full Length Version) 9:32

Is anything on it as lovely as "Cleaning Out The Rooms"?

i think we should ask noted British Sea Power fanatic lexpretend for his thoughts on the subject

something about white boys with guitars amirite

xp That remains one of the best songs I heard all year.

The book's amazing by the way. Very British, natch.

Are they worth seeing live?

funny you should ask, I just saw them a couple of weeks ago. I left early and went to the bar but you might have better luck

Yes.

Yes. They're usually very good and sometimes mind blowingly so.

Anyone heard the new monthly demo EPs?

Wow, missed all those releases.

Currently waiting for the remixes and alternate versions collections.

No-one heard any of these?

I have those, some good stuff in there, actually, and I tend to be uninterested in remixes!

Fans in South East England pay notice. BSP are playing all of Valhalla Dancehall at the next Klub Guttenberg in Brighton. (I'm playing a disco set later on.)

x-post.

To be honest, hearing different versions of Cleaning Out The Rooms was a big part in the decision to buy. One of my favourite tracks of last year and favourite BSP track (not including the Man of Aran soundtrack).

* Bump *

To order the EPs or not? Dilemma.

First one is sold out. I got the first two the other day - they're hardly critical, second one has more fully developed songs as opposed to the first.

I take it back, further listens have revealed these to have much charm, especially "Machineries Of Joy".

Are they more "Who's In Control" or "Cleaning Out The Rooms"?

[CDs seem to be taking an age to arrive]

Ordered "Do It For Your Mum".

Like that it arrived from a D Wilkinson with one of those Stroke Association return address stickers.

EP1 is more "Cleaning Out The Rooms" slow burners, EP2 is more uptempo stuff.

Tonight's Klub Krankenhaus is shaping up to be a belter. Three BSP sets including a Zeus and Valhalla Dancehall one; Bo Ningen and the Girl Brutus dance troupe.

Ordered "Do It For Your Mum".

Like that it arrived from a D Wilkinson with one of those Stroke Association return address stickers.

Yeah, this. Read on a cruise ship with the Open Season Tour bookmark it came with, no less.

EPs are rather good stuff, preferring EP2 'tbqh'.

Miffed that I didn't get on the shortlist of their animal in a hat contest. Fuckers.

Enjoying the book.

The remixes/alternative versions CDs are patchy but include some good stuff.

There's a comical device used in the "Series of Unfortunate Events" books where the author will use a (vaguely) unusual word (eg. "precipitation") and then use a page explaining what this means. i'm sometimes reminded of this reading "Do It For Your Mum". there are odd tangents that, for the most part, make it more interesting than a lot of rock books. sometimes though it feels as if wikipedia has been used, particularly when visiting cities.

EP3 just arrived, it's more languid and instrumental, which is to be expected as they're working on a new soundtrack.

That probably describes my favourite side to BSP.

Ah man, I think that book is beautiful. So well observed. It is cheeky with language in a really entertaining way: Heroin enthusiast etc.

Absolutely - I liked it a lot, for the most part.

EP4 continues the monthly parade of releases - more bands should do his! Opening cut is particularly great.

Currently loving the alternate versions of "Cleaning Out The Rooms".

Oh, well, the original is damn great too! These guys have been one of the most consistent guitar bands this century.

I was saying just the opposite to a friend, earlier: they're wildly *inconsistent* - I much prefer their un-rock side.

Really? I think all their albums have been at least very good, and the mix between bombast and contemplative work keeps both fresh.

There's the odd rockin' piece that I like but the tracks that I * love * are more languid.

The only album I love all the way through is "Man of Arran" (which does include rocky bits).

The latest album is the only one I haven't gone back to that much. It's not a bad record at all but I just didn't click with it the same way I did with the others. I think Do You Like Rock Music might be my favourite these days, that's mainly because of how much I love No Lucifer. First three are all pretty solid though, great live band too.

"Man Of Arran" is strictly instrumental, right? I prefer their vocal work.

EP5?

Available for order now, go get it!

http://sheffdocfest.com/view/thespace

Listening to EP6, which took a dogs age to arrive. As usual, these snapshots of works-in-progress need repeated listens to reveal their charms buthere's much to love already.

It's been a brilliant marketing ploy at the very least and a great tip of te hat to fans. I wonder what will make their next album,and how will it change between now and then?

Were EP5 and EP6 worth spending money on?

Oh yes. Fund a favorite band!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skPb3l2XhXY

Am enjoying the DVD sound track.

They announced their new album coming 4/1. You and I will reconvene on this thread to compare reviews.

New video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHUes0dGjUI

That's really good. I didn't realise they had a new album coming out so soon. I thought the last album was a bit of a dip in quality but looking forward to this one anyway.

New album might be the best one yet.

Has Graham S produced again?

They did it themselves with an engineer but they did a good job.

Cool, that's great to hear. At this point the third album is still my favourite.

KP, what's missing from "VH" in your opinion? As much as I like "Do You Like Rock Music" I find "VH" to be stronger and more interesting., ultimately lingering in my head longer. After the demo EPs from last year, I think we're in for another winner!

Have they ever played in the US?

I realise it's a bit of an unpopular opinion to have the third album as a favourite. I listened to Vauxhall recently and a lot of it just passed me by. I think the album really gets good on Stunde Null and the next two songs after that are my favourite run on the album. Baby is totally forgettable and Living Is so Easy is probably my least favourite single they've put out, it's just a little too cheesy. Observe the Skies and Cleaning Out The Rooms are highlights but then again the last three tracks I find quite forgettable. It's not a bad album at all, it's a low seven while the first three are all high eights.

I didn't hear any the EPs so these will all be new songs to me, looking forward to it a lot now.

So this is lovely, really musical and tuneful, none of the occasional shouting for attention they can be guilty of, feels like it will really unfurl over the weeks and months like Open Season did.

awesome, i am excited to get this

Not really feeling this from a couple of plays (I'd happily just hear BSP play variations on Man of Aran, mind.) Hoping it will grow on me.

The sleeve seems oddly "could be any ol' indie band", too.

Yeah the same for me. It's a nice album but the magic that made those first three albums so great just isn't there for me this time.

Quite liking this surprisingly. Had rather given up on them but at this moment am finding the new pensive BSP a better proposition than the flag waving incarnation.

I want to do a POX, I think.

North Hanging Rock
Cleaning Out The Rooms
Zeus
Oh Larssen B
The Lonely
Atom
No Lucifer
Fear Of Drowning
Machineries Of Joy
When A Warm Wind Blows Through The Grass

Honourable mentions to Bear, We Are Sound, Remember Me, Like A Honeycomb...

Tried to do it in order but apart from the top two there's not much in it.

No Lucifer
Victorian Ice
Like A Honeycomb
Carrion
Atom
Please Stand Up
Fear of Drowning
It Ended on an Oily Stage
No Need to Cry
The Lonely

The albums

Do You Like Rock Music?
Decline of
Open Season
Machineries Of Joy
Vauxhall

Albums would be...

Open Season
Zeus
Machineries
Vauxhall
Decline
Rock Music

I know Zeus is 'only' an EP, but it's 43 minutes long and it's brilliant.

It definitely earns points for Cleaning and Bear. Love the use of the latter in "From the Sea to the Land Beyond".

I know Zeus is 'only' an EP, but it's 43 minutes long and it's brilliant.

Precisely, and it's that sense of adventure found on it that seems missing from "Machineries Of Joy". I've given the latter a couple of listens and there's about 4 tracks that grab me and the others - not so much. At least yet, I'll give it a chance to grow on me. I'm going to spin the demo EPs again, too, and see how they compare. For what it's worth, the bonus 5 track EP that came with my order has a brilliant how-could-they-leave-this-off track "Facts Not Right".

i like this a TON. they have probably gone in the exactly direction i wanted, although i couldn't claim to have known that was what i wanted until i heard it. more judicious use of volume and noise, less conscious of fostering the 'big venue' sound that i think hurt val dancehall and rock music somewhat. and they seem to have embraced the mid-tempo-y songs that have become a strength of theirs.

Did the "remixes" and "alternate versions" versions of "Machineries" throw up anything interesting?

(The actual album didn't, for me).

Huh, didn't even know they released them. Frankly I listened to the Valhalla mixes and alt versions discs a couple of times and thst's it. The 6 demo EPs for the new album were the real meat.

Wasn't aware of this, either.

Changing gears, the proper CD release of their 'From the Sea to the Land Beyond' soundtrack is gorgeous. It almost plays as an instrumental best-of, with nice sequencing.

The soundtrack really works, doesn't it? It's how I like BSP. Wish I hadn't bought the standalone DVD, mind.

Anyone know BSP sufficiently well to make a track listing of the original titles of the tracks featuring on "From The Sea ..."?

This was harder than expected!

1. From The Sea To The Land Beyond - ?
2. Remarkable Diving Feat - Waving Flags
3. Strange Sports - Something Wicked
4. Heroines Of The Cliff - ?
5. The Guillemot Girls - ?
6. Suffragette Riots - ?
7. Heatwave - ?
8. Melancholy Of The Boot - Spirit of St. Louis?/No Lucifer
9. Be You Mighty Sparrow? - The Land Beyond
10. Berth 24 - Childhood Memories
11. Red Rock Riviera - Cleaning Out The Rooms
12. Coastguard - All In It
13. Perspectives Of Stinky Turner - ?
14. Bonjour Copains - Machineries Of Joy
15. The Wild Highlands - Once More Now
16. Docklands Renewed - A Lovely Day Tomorrow
17. The Islanders - The Land Beyond
18. Heatwave (Lympne Castle Demo)

Many of the tracks are based a single riff or chorus from the original, and there's more new stuff than I remembered.

Oh, 5 is 'Bear'.

Thanks Millsner ... The request was partly so I could go back to specific recent tracks and see if I liked them more now, having heard them in this context.

7 is Baby.

The "Machineries: Alternate Versions" turns out to be mostly instrumental, ranging from straight backing tracks to demos. It plays like a soundtrack version of the album, very atmospheric.

It's nice, isn't it?

Were you tempted by the remixes too?

Much nicer than I expected! I've only listened to the remix album once, it seemed like more of the same actually with only a few really different takes.

But I still much prefer the oomph of Valhalla Dancehall. I still need to listen to the demos EPs back to back with Machineries, maybe that will help me figure out what's missing for me.

Much prefer the alternative versions to the remix cd (though they did also send a copy of the Machineries bonus disc, which was a nice freebie).

NEW BSP PROJECT… INTRODUCING “SEA OF BRASS” !!

Nearly two years in the making, we are pleased to finally announce an exciting new commission for British Sea Power, “Sea of Brass”, which combines BSP live alongside championship 28-piece Brass Bands from all around the UK. Peter Wraight (Matthew Herbert Big Band) has created bespoke brass parts to accompany a selection of BSP songs from BSPs entire catalogue.

We gratefully acknowledge support from Arts Council England, PRS for Music Foundation, and our co-commissioning venues.

Our premiere performance will take place on Thursday 17th July 2014 at Gala Theatre, Durham, as part of Brass: Durham International Festival.

Tickets will go on sale at 5pm on April 2nd 2014 via at www.galadurham.co.uk

^ Barbican, London tickets on sale.

More Brass tour dates ...

http://britishseapower.co.uk/news/606/sea-of-brass

So many people I know whose music taste is similar to mine really like this band, but for some reason I just can't get into them. Maybe I haven't found the right entry point yet? I really liked 'K Hole' off their last album, though.

I got into them quite late - via The Man Of Aran soundtrack - and worked backwards. I definitely don't like everything by them but looking forward to the Barbican show very much indeed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0RAdfrQwvo

They grew in my estimation over time. There's definitely something askew about his vocal delivery that takes getting used to.

My favorites are "Do You Like Rock Music" and "Valhalla Dancehall". The "Lovely Day Tomorrow" collaboration with Ecstacy Of St. Theresa is particularly wonderful.

Anyone seen any of the Brass concerts?

Barbican show cancelled tonight due to (slightly unconvincing) power cut.

Still waiting to hear new date ...

Supposedly announcing the new date today/tomorrow, if anyone is hoping to pick up a return ...

24th January.

Sea of Brass gig ... not as good as it needed to be to justify a second lot of train fares etc.

I suppose a show in the Northeast of America is out of the question...

Don't be a bad Bohemian.

good song. am extremely ready for a new bsp album.

new album is good but just good, prob not any better than that. hamilton not really pulling his weight which significantly lowers the ceiling for a sea power album in 2017

Zeus EP still their best release yes good glad we all agree

Tie between Zeus and Man of Aran imho, but the ep is great yes.

MOA great too yes but I'd feel their best release had to have some of their pop sensibility involved

In theory, but all the great albums with the pop sensibility all have their minor weaknesses imho. MOA is a wholly finished concept album, great from start to finish.

(I can't live without ' Cleaning out the Rooms' though tbh)

^ Also my favourite.

With this album, I've found myself a) strangely disinterested in hearing it and b) oddly cynical about the positive reviews I've read.

Yeah it was a shame they had to reuse Cleaning Out The Rooms on the ensuing album because it was obviously the best thing on it and a sign they'd been a bit short of inspiration

lol what. i think just possibly they conceived of the ep after the album was done. maybe they cobbled the album together in the 2 months between the respective releases but i am skeptical

Well then why is Mongk on the EP and Mongk 2 on the album then, u mongk

Well then why is Mongk on the EP and Mongk 2 on the album then, u mongk

In an interview with Drowned in Sound, guitarist Martin Noble stated:

Believe it or not, ‘Mongk II’ was actually written first and ‘Mongk’ which came out first is a remix! We’d always intended saving ‘Mongk II’ for the album anyway so when it came to putting together Zeus we did a different version of ‘Mongk’ which became number one.

Fine well I have no idea why I prefer the EP then, imo Zeus and Bear are both better than anything on VD as well, no idea of the choices that went into it all

Think Bear is my BSP OPO

i guess they just had a lot of material, the album is already an hour long. there's no place for zeus, i am sure the idea for the EP at all was based on them having zeus and nothing else to do with it. maybe you could make room for bear, take something else off, although i am not sure what. and if they had decided to put cleaning out the rooms on every subsequent release i wouldn't blame them or complain.

Man, this is my favorite BSP album since '05's Open Season. I'm almost never in agreement with "comeback" albums, though. I thought last year's Rogue Wave album was their best ever.

cd80

lights our for darker skies
no lucifer
loving animals
apologies to insect life
cleaning out the rooms
spring has spring
like a honeycomb
international space station
how will i ever find my way home?
bear
mongk II
it ended on an oily stage
oh larson b
when a warm wind blows through the grass
carrion
true adventures

I've been a little cold on this band for years, so imagine my surprise when I found myself listening to their debut 2 or 3 three times today... 'Lately' in particular blew me away. I'm gonna give their other records another chance.

You're in for a treat, go chronologically to appreciate their development.

Meanwhile, their last couple of records are good but not great, haven't stuck in my head like previous albums.

"Lately" was the one that did it for me back when that record came out

Well shit, Open Season is also hitting the spot!

Open Season is really good, DYLRM stumbles a bit (though it didn't deserve the Pitchfork joke review treatment it got)

DYLRM got a positive pfork review iirc. the bad ones were valhalla and machineries, both by ian cohen so

oh shit. nm. i remember now

"True Adventures" from Open Season is one of my all-time favorite album-closers.

Yeah, 'True Adventures' rules... and I'll bet it sounds better in a live environment. I really need to see this band live.

Onto Do You Like Rock Music? ... it's a bit cleaner and feels more beefed-up/muscular compared to the previous two - I'm loving it, though!

Do You Like Rock Music? had a pretty strong effect on me - in a way the rest of their stuff just hasn't (chunks of Man of Arran aside). I still listen every few months. Need to revisit the earlier albums.

Holy shit, 'We Close Our Eyes' is an incredible closer - these guys really know how to do epics.

Damn, I hadn't seen that Pitchfork review of "Valhalla Dancehall". They miss the point completely, it's exactly their attempt to "marry both their quirkier sensibilities and arena-level hooks" that makes it so compelling and downright fun! The "Zeus" mini-album is arguable even better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDPS3u_DBw4

I really like 'Zeus'. "Cleaning Out The Rooms" might be my favourite BSP song.

Of course that's on the album too. The other 'Zeus' track I love is "Bear".

^ Their two best songs. I'm refusing to buy the new album unless anyone makes the claim that there is a song as good on there.

No one will make that claim.

that's a cruelly high standard. and not really close.

Halfway through Valhalla Dancehall and I now officially love this band - nobody is as surprised about this as much as I am and I'm left wondering why this stuff didn't click with me before. Maybe it was just that I needed to hear the right song at the right time.

I haven't picked up the new album yet, the singles have sounded fine but 'Machineries of Joy' passed me by a little when it came out, I bought it but must have been to busy listening to other things to properly get into it.

Maybe it was just that I needed to hear the right song at the right time.

I could list dozens of bands where that was true for me. I still revisit things to see if the intervening years of listening has changed my perceptions.

Back to BSP: they've got a large cache of non-lp material, much of which is worth hearing. This is my single favorite obscurity, though it's cheating a bit because the vocals are handled by Kateřina Winterová of Ecstasy of Saint Theresa:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHgpNZSxwPU

There's an older version of that song with Hamilton on vocals that's just as Lovely.

IIRC it concerns the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c_XaSrLzEM

Was really disappointed by Open Season and Do You Like Rock Music. They were not bad albums at all but the debut was amazing and got me thinking they were going to be one of the great rock bands of their era. I'd love a compilation of the early singles and EPs, surprised it never happened by now.

I've been a little hesitant to check the new stuff. I felt Open Season suffered for not using their better singer enough (I don't know their names) because one is way better than the other.

fwiw the same singer, yan, sings all but 2 songs on decline and all but 3 on open season. i would characterize those first two and the most recent as the most dominated by him.

Is this the most recent thread? Anyway, they have announced they've changed their name - they've dropped the "British" bit.

International Sea Power

https://slinky.to/twofingers

I mean, hey, good enough reasoning for me:

On Monday 9 August 2021, the band announced that they would henceforth be known as Sea Power due to “a rise in a certain kind of nationalism in this world – an isolationist, antagonistic nationalism that (they) don’t want to run any risk of being confused with.”

New single sounds very promising. I mean, yeah, nothing radically new in their sound but it's still a sound I dig.

otm

Excited to see where they go from here.

Anyone particularly feeling the album?

I'll sit down and give it a listen this evening. Press seems positive.

This new one has a couple of highlights, but it feels a bit lackadaisical in general.

Funny, I felt that way about the last couple — they'd have a formidable track or two, and the rest never quite gelled. This latest one felt much more polished and cohesive, even if it's not their most adventurous.

I'm going to agree with Rizzx's assessment - there are a couple of stand out tracks that come early ("Transmitter", "Two Fingers"), a couple of other solid songs and the rest is nice sub-shoegaze that moves too slowly for what I want. A good listen but nothing that's going to make me return. The truth is, I haven't played the last one since it came out, either. I think this is where I get off the bus.

It's been growing on me this album, it's very textural and melodic and with Two Fingers it has a song that could be a peace anthem for these times.

Just like Liberace
I will return to haunt you with
Peculiar piano riffs