Guillemots - I Saw Such Things In My Sleep EP

it's really quite surprised me the way fantastic plastic has gone from being a boring indie label with the occasional ok release to the point where i have to have everything they put out. the Umlaut single in particular is fab gear!!

"We here at addVice take ornithology very seriously. Our favorite new discovery is the Guillemot, a rare sea bird that lays its eggs on the cliffs. Luckily for those of you who could give a crap about birds, Guillemots is also a pretty awesome new band.

Pronounced "GILL - eh - motts", this is a group which has a background that ranges from jazz to classical piano to pop. Studded with broken rhythms and mini-keyboard orchestras, the British based group produces a quirky and catchy sound that is refreshing even to our jaded ears. Their music is reminiscent of bands such as Broken Social Scene, The Dears, Rufus Wainwright, and Arcade Fire. Their mini album dropped March 14th and is aptly called from the cliffs.
Album review on Music for Robots HERE

Itunes Single of the week!
Want to hear it for yourself? You can download Trains to Brazil for free on Itunes HERE.
But hurry up because you only have through Monday to snag this song.

Single review on YouAintNoPicasso.com HERE.

Live, the band has a raw, electric edge and is quickly earning a reputation as a fearless and organic act. They put emphasis on improvisation and letting go of all inhibitions. Guillemots are on a mission to make music as art.

Check out the Mercury Lounge show review on Brooklyn Vegan HERE."

It'll still be interesting to see how they do it live though.

Album proper out July 10th in the UK, and is called Through The Windowpane. Single release of "Made-Up Love Song #43" preceeds it by two weeks.

Marcello, on another thread: "Sounds to me like the cast of Crackerjack doing the Arcade Fire." I'd say: Dogs Die In Hot Cars play the hits of Animal Collective, in the style of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band.

There's a big element of geographical dislocation and cultural identity angst in the record, which probably comes from the guitarist being Brazillian. I don't get the "wacky" thing - creative, deliberately eclectic, contrived, yes, but what isn't contrived? The assumed name thing could be annoying, but again, being a pop star, a musician, requires an aount of artifice. They're making an effort to create a world, to make an encompassing experience for their fans by inviting them in, and in a world of Coldplays I appreciate that. Who were the last band to do it? The Libertines, and that wasn't a healthy world to be invited into.

Perhaps the Canadian scene is more amenable to musicians, or communities of musicians, who want to "create a world" - thinking of the Arcade Fire, obviously, but also Wolf Parade, the Meligrove Band, Metric etc. - all have overlaps in personnel with each other and with BSS - as opposed to this country where it's all down to CAREER CAREER CAREER and if you didn't open envelopes for the right journalist then you've had it. Thus the Canadian music scene is about the happiest and healthiest there is anywhere at the moment, and we end up with Lily Allen.

Also it may well be CAREER CAREER CAREER in this country, but Guillemots strike me as very much going against that. They're the anti-Embrace which is probably part of why I love them so much, keep my yin and yang balanced. The biggest thing I get from them is just a total and utter love of music.

X-post, well, if you like.

Yes, there is certainly concerted PR push behind the Guillemots (having just reviewed them, I know of what I speak), but they do seem to be blithely unconcerned by all of that - to the point where, in a 90 minute set, they didn't even bother performing "We're Here" (despite encore requests).

Also, all credit to Fyfe Dangerfield (and latterly the guitarist guy, CBATG) for accompaning Joan Wasser/Joan As Policewoman for most of her solo support set. Most comradely.

I know nothing of them other than their music - and possibly that one of them was on Buzzcocks and has a beard - but they is aweseome.

The Coldplay comparison is only valid in that the band sounds a bit like the long-awaited "radio-friendly" Radiohead that was initially Coldplay's tag.

Goodness, after James Blunt and Amy Winehouse hitting it big in the States I only wonder how big their potential is here. They'd be an instant improvement over Maroon 5 at least.

The Coldplay comparison is insane, and presumably spans from the fact that both frontmen are gawky, polite, and play piano.

what's the awesome song they do live where the bassist howls like a madwoman? "She's Evil" or something? Coldplay could never do that.

anything new coming from them soon?

"She's Evil" is on the really rather excellent 'Of The Night' EP, which also contains "Bad Boyfriend", a ten-minute dark disco breakdown.

I gather they're recording.

New album out today. How much disgust for them around here? I hope little, because it's very, very pop, in an 80s sense.

I've only heard the current single which I half like and half detest. I quite like the general rhythm of it and 'woo-hoo' and 'get over it' backing vocal hooks. On the other hand a lot of the lyrics really make me squirm and I don't like the contrived nature of some of his vocal delivery (esp. the 'g-g-g-g-get over it' which he does at one point towards the end and which really, really annoys me).

last album was brilliant, this one sounds like jamiroquai

this EP is amazing

so far I would be completely comfortable boiling this album down to "Get Over It" and "Kriss Kross", but I kinda want to give it a little more time.

Aye, I have been pretty underwhelmed thus far, but am hoping it will grow with familiarity.

It's growing on me a little.

Not so much '80s pop, more 2004 Dog Day Press notion of pop.

Que?

combination of irritating middleground indie production, burial rather than enhancement or advancement of songs by "weird ideas" and too much Wire reader deference.

Is that just this album, or their whole oeuvre? I don't think their production's at all middleground indie, although there are bits on this album where it's closer to that than it has been previously.

This album more so than the first, but really they should hire Xenomania.

Just listened to Red for the first time in a while, and really enjoyed it. Move along now.

Last Kiss has just come on random. It's actually awesome. Somewhere between LCD Soundsystem and Sugababes.

Excellent comeback single from these guys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgUXb2RWsOs

Love the chorus so much.

I quite liked that but I still miss the jazzy looseness they had on the early singles and some of the debut album.

This is the opening track from the new album, you might like this more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yef2PF2AteU

Actually it's not that jazzy but it would have fit nicely on the first album.

Absolutely love the "Walk The River" album. It seems that they have sort of refined their pop style, gotten a bit less "weird" and are doing wonders in the sophisticated pop vein.

My only beef is with the vocals. Not Fyfe Dangerfield's voice itself, which is actually one of the finest voices in current pop, but more how he wears some obvious influences (namely Echo & The Bunnymen and The Killers) on his sleeves a bit too much. Fyfe Dangerfield is tehnically a much better singer than Ian McCulloch or Brandon Flowers, and I see no reason why he should ape their slightly out-of-tune vocal style just to get some sort of indie "twist". He'd better just sound like himself and stay one hundred per cent pop. Sure, it may be that a Pitchform namecheck may provide more credibility in some circles than an Audities mailing list namecheck would have done, but it still doesn't make them any better. Better keep to the pop/soft rock style and put away all "indie" ambitions. That would make them even better.

(Pitchfork, not Pitchform)

The new album is good but sadly not great. I miss the weirdness of the last two albums. There are plenty of great moments but overall the album is a bit slow and long, there's no reason at all why two of the songs are over 8 minutes.

The lack of weirdness is exactly why I love the recent album better. They are perfecting their softrock style instead of collecting "indie" cred. Which is good.

I don't think they ever really had indie cred, they didn't really have a lot of hype or acclaim when they came about. I can't halp thinking I'd rather hear more of their pop side. There is nothing as good as Trains to Brazil or Made Up Love Song on this new album.

They are perfecting their softrock style instead of collecting "indie" cred.

this is the band you were talking about in the fleet foxes thread? jeez man, i expected something ... different.

I just remembered The Guillemots - especially Trains To Brazil, which I always loved. The first album was kind of like a neat alternative for people who liked Funeral but didn't like the Neon Bible, despite it being kind of nothingy other than that one song. The second album kind of presaged the indie-r'n'b thing that came about a bit later... But what happened to the Guillemots - did they ever do anything else worthwhile or will they forever be my favourite one-song art-pop band from the mid-2000s?

Fyfe did a pleasant but underwhelming solo album in about 2010? The first album's USP for me was all the jazz and samba stuff; when that was stripped away I wasn't keen. Those early EP tracks were ace though, and the début album was very good in parts.

10 year anniversary of this pitchfork review should have been a major event

I relistened to Sao Paulo recently to see if it merited inclusion on that 'songs that build and build and keep building' thread

jfc it was laughable

Redwings still floors me.

I'd completely forgotten about this band. Felt like they had so much potential, and could have been the UK equivelent of Arcade Fire. But like that band they never quite managed to deliver on a promising start, neither did they manage to hit those critical or commercial heights. Going back to 'Through The Windowpane' today - maybe it was just the wrong time for them? The album has SONGS but takes a lot of detours on the way to them. The appetite for British rock at the time was punchy 3-minute singalongs, and the extended subdued opener goes completely against that. Trains To Brazil is still a lovely song though eh?

I found a copy of From the Cliffs the other day which made for a nostalgic listen. Definitely one of those "coulda been contenders" acts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX3AcSrt9Co

outstanding cut above landfill indie of the era. the chord progression makes me feel alive!

Back in 2012, Guillemots planned to release an album per season, but only managed to do the spring release 'Hello Land!' (which was excellent). Afterwards, MC Lord Magrão left the band and they all but faded away completely.

However: Fyfe Dangerfield made his return 6 years later by releasing an amazing series of songs/soundscapes/weirdness called Birdwatcher (for free on his website https://www.channelsmaychange.com/!). It's one of my very favourite things in music, ever.

Fyfe also performed many Guillemots and solo songs (as well as covers) via 2x10 series of wonderful weekly Instagram Live performances during lockdown last year. There's more new stuff in the works too and the new songs he played during those sessions sounded very, very promising.

Trains To Brazil definitely one of my favourite songs of the 2000s. Absolutely indifferent to everything else I've heard