Supergroups 2.3 ...More of Englands emerging Indie generation (even though half of 'em are signed already!!..dammit!)
Sheffield, a town once synonymous with the word 'steel' found its very name becoming the hallmark for the very peek of 'stainless' quality during the last century. Among younger generations Sheffield is no longer so recognisable for words like 'Stainless' or 'Steel' anymore but for words like 'Arctic' and 'Monkeys' and 'Our bands' Ever scince those icy apes sled onto the stage riding the crest of their own musical
avalanche it seems that some of the towns booming indie bands had been partialy buried by the stampeding music medias 'there can be only one' styled obsession with the band that has since inspired a thousand others. At last, the shallow icy vineer of the 'trend stalking music mag' is giving way as people realise that there is far more to Sheffields music than just the hypothermic monkeys and every year at least a hundred more equaly gifted souls are actualy imported into the town via the colleges and university to expand on that indie boom just a little more until the next avalanche of sound spills out from the city and buries the words of the media brigade that has become far too timid of mind to cope with the concept that there are plenty of equaly original and possibly even better bands pouring a rich and brightly coloured tapestry of sound back into the steely grey of Sheffields city streets today.
One of those bands formed from the annualy imported now joyfully snowboarding upon the crest of Sheffields new musical avalache is the Uni based band 'All The Damn Kids'. Many of Englands biggest bands have formed after falling over each other throughout the nations Halls of Residence (bands such as Queen or Genesis being prime examples of old) and there's no doubt that scince the advent of those Arctic Monkeys upon the Britains throne of sound that many more aspiring musicians and music fans are now replacing the usual first choices of 'Oxford' and 'Cambridge' with 'Sheffield' and 'Sheffield again', but All The Darn Kids not only stumbled over each other when they were drawn to Sheffield from the four corners of the nation but they also stumbled over some vastly contrasting musical influences that were seemingly as far apart from each other as their original home towns once were before their magical blending among Sheffields hallowed halls.
They first set out on their musical path under the name of 'The Silence of Venice' where their music was first crowned by the Jack Daniels 'Student Union Battle of The Bands' in 2008. So far 2009 has seen the addition of Emily to the keys and synths to open up a new dimension of sound for the band and under the new name 'All The Damn Kids' they restretched some famous royal lug holes in March by winning Sheffields Princes Trust version of Battle of the Bands too.The collective and individual inspirations of the band members take in everything from heavy metal to pop, dance, trance and even folk to create a sound that has been compared to being the lovechild of everyone from the Spoons and Klaxons to even Blur and 'Aha'!??? The feel good pop element may well stand out but it is thankfully well grounded by some very 'independant' riffs and some much too clever for pop styled lyrics from the original unnamed members Nigel, Will, James and Jareth. We've added two tasters of their feasts to come in the form of 'Snake Pass' and 'Indie Is A Dirty Word'.
Single's, ep's and albums are all in the pipeline for the very near future as well as an autumn 09 tour of venues throughout Leeds, Middlesborough, Barnsley and Sheffield.
So keep a royal ear out for more winning sounds from this new wave of Sheffield sound - with plenty more bursting at the cities seams too. All The Damn Kids can currently be found on their MySpace page with a nonspace band site now currently under construction for the social media shy due to be unvieled soon. We had to award a 'red triangle' due to just one instance of 'naughty worditus' on 'Snake Pass' ...well, you can pretty much garantee that if you have any children under 7 then it'll probably be that one word that all yer own damn kids will not only hear but decide to repeat aloud the next time your vicar comes round for tea! You can find more tracks, dates and details by clicking the stainless steel button here...
Every now and again in the world there will arrive on the scene a young enthusiast of sound who is heavily engrossed and empassioned by his or her own 'personal hobby' of exploring, bending and mixing both his own and remixing others musical creations. The more they experiment with various sound samples, channels, effects, tools and mixing equipment, the more they discover new ways to create unique sounds that were probably once formerly unknown to any human ear at all . All too soon they will find that those new creations will lure an entire generation into a catologue of songs and mixes that, when created, were probably only ever intended to be for their composers own self gratification. The next thing they'll notice is that their presance will be required repeatedly throughout their own and neighbouring cities clubs, pubs and studios while event organisers, venue owners and fellow artists start begging for them to weave that special gift they once took for granted in their venues and with their own music too.
Suddenly they're now being hailed as 'super producers' and 'sound masters of a new generation'.Many have unexpectedly stumbled upon this path, Irelands Skully, New York and Londons Marc Ronson, Canada's DEE etc..Uk residents will be finding it very hard to miss the sudden emmergence of 'Frankmusik' on all the nations media too - especialy scince Universal decided to back his debut album. But Frankmusics 'Frank' is just one of a community of new London supermixers, creators, songwriters and producers creating a new wave of electro sound throughout the city with there being two more very closely connected names that will quite likely soon be sharing the same - or if not greater- ammount of media attention throughout the clublands and radio stations of the west...
The first of those two names is fellow mixer extroadinaire Starsmith -aka, Finn Dow-Smith who has been continuosly earning the praise and admiration of the entire musical community for the last eighteen months following repeated collaberations and remixes of tracks by countless artists including Frankmusic himself.Aside from Frankmusik remixes that were held in awe by 'Frank' himself, Finns other musical coup came through his recent colaborations with hertfordshire born and Powys (Wales) raised vocalist extroadinaire Ellie Goulding.His Passion Pit remix and reinvention of their track 'Sleepyhead' with Ellie was considered by the band to be much better than their own. If Ellie's vocals were to be compared to anyone else and if music were to be described as a form of finr dining we'd have to say think of the rich flavours of Cathy Davy on tracks like 'Moving', add in just a tiny pinch of Kate Bush for balance and seal it all in with a rich Welsh linguistic flavouring caramelised slightly in the Icelandic firepools of Bjork .In fact her vocals have been so outstanding that she has apparently spent most of the past year being persued by countless major record labels before very recently signing her talents over to Polydor Records (Dammit!!Them Polydorians are starting to make a habit of signing the worlds best new female vocalists...isn't having Meteor Award winner Cathy Davey more than enough for a major label to handle?!!). The past year has seen a number of Starsmith-Goulding masterpieces pass through Finns studio with each one being produced to a standard set to outstrip the major labels and make Universal wonder if they should have been wooing Starsmith instead of Frank! Furthermore...where most major labels use pitch correctors to hide the imperfections and tone deafness of most of their 'image only' artists it seems that Starsmith has instead been using the software as an instrument to give a machine gunning 'slap my face and drop my jaw in wonder' effect to one of the most pitch perfect vocalists in the UK on tracks like Starry Eyed (One of many gems mixed with Ellie). We've offered links to both Ellie's new Polydarian ready MySpace and Finns Starsmith MySpace featuring plenty of special rare video's of his own adventures with the then unsigned Frankmusik and Ellie (look out for the special 'Peter Cook Python' moment in the promo for 'The Writer' on Ellies page)with extra links to his own special Music blog on London and the UK's new emerging music scenes.
Manchester, Manchester, Manchester...for the last few decades large numbers of record producers have become absolutely obsessed with the city. While the city has indeed reared some of Britains very best bands over the last three decades or so there has remained in some industry circles a bewildering obsession and belief that 'it doesn't matter how crap they are, as long as they're from Manchester we will sell it'. A couple of years ago one once renouned producer clearly lost the plot altogether after not only trying to sign a ten year old who couldn't even sing but also by signing a group of exceptionaly non musical lads who made a terrible attempt at their own Pink Floyd 'Another Brick In The Wall' moment by dragging a group of infant and junior school children into the studio to sing a chorous about dropping hallucinagenic drugs. The producer in question was last seen fleeing for his life from the militant arm of the NSPCC and half of the cities parents. So while Manchesters true musical talents sit and watch on in total bewilderment as major labels and A&R guys rummage through the cities dustbins like depraved tramps and ignore all the three course meals being layed on by the cities indie scene, it shockingly seems that during the lull of talent, the south coast of England is rapidly becoming the new 'Manchester' as a whole new generation of world class indie bands and musicians have begun to take to the stage.
One band making alot of noise from the south coast is Southamptons 'Bury Tommorrow' -currently in the middle of a UK tour leading up to a highly anticipated album release. But those in the know have noticed a subtle absence to the ear bending Iron Maidenised riffs and Linkin Park 'super screamo' lyrics and sound over the past year that hasn't been properly mentioned in the bands MySpace bio.This absence is because the superfast fingerwork of former guitarist Mark Brown decided to take a slightly less starstruck and self fulfilling path in music by leaving the band to pay closer attention to his own solo skills and creations. Marks solo project is called 'I Confess' and after a number of collaborations with other succesfull Solent artists (from Southampton, Fareham, Lee On Solent, Portsmouth etc) and all mixed by his own hand on his own home studio and label 'Brownsound', he managed to produce a rich acoustic sound which is not only very sharp vocaly but his frettwork and technical skill should certainly stand alongside the likes of Chris Squire and Steve Howe (the acoustic and electric lead masters of former cornerstones of british rock 'Yes')..and after listening to his fingerwork on 'Runaway' it realy won't take too much imagination to guess just how good things sounded when once fronting Bury Tomorrow , wether it was on a Fender,Gibson, Kramer or even a ukelele!
Mark regularly plays at venues throughout the south -so expect to see and hear alot more from him over the coming months and a number of new releases and debut ep's, singles, albums etc should hopefully become available soon. Weve added a link to Marks MySpace where you'll be able to preview his new creations as well as another link to co collaborator (and other former Bury Tomorrow frontman) Chris Preddy whose own solo project was aided and abetted by Marcs Brownsound studio with crossover backing vocals and guitar from the pair featuring in each others solo ventures (with some truly amazing vocals delivered on some of Chris's own project too) at...
More of the best of Englands upcoming musical generation soon...
Keep the talents alive, follow the links and buy it!
Copyright 2009 Mairtin O'Riain and Martin Ryan, The Ryan-O'Riain22 , and the featured bands.
